James & Lily: A love story begins
by Bibliophil88
Summary: This tells my idea of how James' love for Lily was finally reciprocated.
1. Chapter 1

James and Lily:

A Love Story Begins

Chapter 1

It was 11:45 p.m., and a tall boy with messy black hair and laughing blue eyes was just crawling thought the portrait hole to the Gryffindor common room, which was seemingly empty. The fire in the hearth was crackling, and slowly burning down for the night. Everything was still and silent as he started for the stairs leading to the boys' dormitories. Just then, he heard the turning of a book page coming from one of the overstuffed armchairs in the corner next to the fireplace. He saw a glint of light from the flames shine off of the auburn hair of a pretty girl who was curled up with a book, a mixture of concentration and interest on her face. She seemed to be so engrossed in the book, she didn't realize the boy was even in the room.

"Hey, Evans," said the dark-haired boy in a would-be-casual voice.

The girl turned quickly, forced back into reality by the sound of his voice. "Oh, it's you. Hello Potter. What are you doing out so late? You were supposed to be here over an hour ago. Curfew's 10:00, even for James Potter."

"Oh, Evans, I'm hurt! To think you'd accuse _me_ of breaking the rules!" the boy said in mock distress. "McGonagall told me I could stay out a bit late to practice for the big game Saturday. Said she didn't want to have to give up the trophy, and we'd better win. Oh, yeah, and she wanted me to give this to you." He pulled a slightly crumpled letter from his robe pocket and handed it to her. "It came by Muggle post today. Who's writing you anyway?"

She snatched the letter from his hands and glanced at the return address. "It's from my sister, not that it's any of your business," she said as she opened the envelope.

"Well, see ya Evans," James said as he turned away slowly. He just didn't understand why she didn't like him. _Oh well._ _It's her loss,_ he told himself without really believing it. Nearly every girl in the school would go out with him, given the chance; as a matter of fact, every girl would but one. It just happened though, that the one girl was the only one he wanted to go out with. Lily Evans. He hid his dejection as he once again turned toward the staircase leading to his room, and once again was distracted by a sound near the fireplace. He turned to see Evans quickly wipe away a tear and take a sniffing breath.

"You okay, Evans?" James asked concernedly, walking toward her.

"Yes, I'm fine," she said in a thick voice and blinked several times.

"You sure? 'Cause you don't look fine. What's the matter?" James was really worried now, he'd never seen her cry before, and wasn't quite sure what to do. He raised his hand to hold her shoulder, but hesitated and rested it on the back of the chair instead.

"Nothing! Now please, go away!" She hid her face in her arms took a shuddering breath, clearly trying not to break down completely in front of James.

"Please, tell me what's wrong. I know I'm not your favorite person in the world, but, well, I want to help if I can. Please?"

Lily was caught off guard at his open manner and gave in. She pointed to the letter that lay on the floor. James picked it up and scanned its contents.

"My sister, Petunia, she, she said. She said that our parents, she said that they're dead. She said that a group of wizards broke into the house, and they, they started breaking everything. Petunia hid in her room, but my parents, they went to see what was making the noise. She said she saw green light under her door, and some men laughing. They were laughing, James! Then there were a lot of cracking sounds, and when she went to see what happened, they were dead. It was the Death Eaters. I know it was. They killed my parents because of me. Because I'm a muggle-born studying magic, and they can't get me at Hogwarts, so they killed my parents instead. It's all my fault, and now my parents are gone, and Petunia hates me, and they can't be dead James! They can't! Please, please. They can't! They can't!" She broke down into heaving sobs and buried her head in James's arm.

Shocked though he was by everything happening, James knew Lily needed to have someone, even him, to be there for her. He hesitantly rubbed her back in as comforting a way as he could and tried to calm her down. "Please, please, it's not your fault, Evans. It's not! Those Death Eaters, they're, well, they're evil. I can't change what happened to your parents. I wish I could, but I can tell you that there's no _way_ it's your fault. And there's nothing you could have done to stop it."

Nothing he could say seemed to calm her. She just kept crying as he stroked her hair and patted her back. "Please, please don't cry," he pleaded with her. "Please. _Lily_!" He said her name with such feeling, compassion, and emotion, she looked up, startled. "Lily, listen to me, it's not your fault, okay? It's not your fault." He looked deep into her eyes and tried to convey all of his feelings into that one look, not sure what else to say or do.

She breathed in deeply and made an attempt to stem the flow of her tears. "Thank you, James." she said when she finally composed herself. She wiped her eyes and then turned to look at him. "You, uh, you called me Lily. You've never called me that before." She looked down and swallowed the tears that threatened to begin again.

"Oh, yeah, right. Well, I guess I haven't. But, hey, are you okay? I mean, I know you're not _okay_ okay, but, are you going to be okay?" he asked her, relieved she had stopped crying, but not wanting to leave her.

"Yes, well, I guess so. I mean, you can go if you want. I'll, uh, I'll be alright." she told him, but she didn't look like he wanted him to leave. This was unusual, and James wanted to make sure she was really going to be alright before he left.

"No, I didn't mean that. I don't have to leave; I'm not really tired anyway. I'd rather stay here, if that's okay with you."

"Well, if you really want to…" she said, then she looked up at him, and he saw the gratitude in her eyes. "Thank you for being here for me, James. You didn't have to." She looked down again, overcome by emotion.

"Oh, really, what else could I do, huh?" he said with a sad smile. "Don't you know I'd do anything for you, Lily?" He had been caught up in a moment of frankness, and said more than he'd meant to, but it was too late now.

"What?" She looked up again, startled by his words. She looked at him, trying to see if he meant what he said. Trying to see if James Potter could really be saying this to her. The same James who ruffled his hair to make it look like he'd just gotten off his broom, and who was constantly breaking the rules with his gang of friends. The same James who was the object of nearly every girl's affection at Hogwarts.

"You got to know it Lily, you've got to know that I've been crazy about you for years, don't you?" He looked in her eyes and tried to see what she was feeling now. He felt bad for bringing this up at a time like this, but it was too late now. He had to tell her. This was their seventh and final year at Hogwarts, and he may not have another chance.

"I, well, no. I mean, I know you asked me out a lot during our fourth and fifth years, but, well, I figured you were just joking. I didn't think you were serious about it or anything." she said. She was very confused, and was having difficulty processing so many emotions at once. First, receiving the letter about her parents, and now James Potter turning out to be a sensitive guy who had feelings for her. It was all too much.

"No, Lily, I was never joking with you. I've wanted to be with you since long before fourth year, I just didn't actually get up the courage to ask you before then. Then, when you turned me down, I acted like I didn't care. Like it was a game when I asked you, but it was never a game. Never. You said I'd never called you Lily before, but that's not true. I stopped calling you Lily when I realized how much I liked you. I didn't want you and everyone to know how much I liked you, and I figured, if I said your name, then everyone would be able to hear it in my voice. That's when I started calling you Evans. It was just easier to pretend I didn't have feelings for you when I called you Evans. Evans is a girl in my class, a friend, but Lily is the person I've, well, the person I've been in love with since first year. I know you don't want to hear any of this, and I'm sorry to dump this all on you now especially. I don't want to hurt you, Lily, and I understand that you don't feel the same way. I just, I guess I had to tell you. I'm sorry it came out tonight. I know you have a lot on your mind. Just, just give me the word and I'll leave, okay? Whenever you want."

He said this in such a sadly calm voice that Lily wasn't sure quite what to say at first. She had always thought of James as sort of arrogant, and never once thought he was being sincere when he asked her out. There were so many feelings crowding her right now, she couldn't think clearly. Then, she realized, she didn't need to think. There are some cases were you only need to feel, and this was one of them. She closed her eyes for a few minutes, and when she opened them, she knew what she felt, at least partially.

"James, I don't want you to leave. You've been such a good friend tonight, and I can't thank you enough for that. I never meant to hurt you all those times; I would never have done that if I had known. And I truly believe that you're being sincere, so now I'll try and be sincere with you.

"You were always such a show-off when we were younger, that I guess that's just how I thought of you, and I didn't really pay any attention to how you've changed. But you have changed. And I'm so sorry for ever having hurt you. James, I can't think right now, and I can't tell you exactly what I feel, but I can tell you this. I do have feelings for you. I don't know that I had them before tonight, before we talked, but I know I do now. I'm not sure about the extent of them, I'm not sure of much of anything anymore, but I am sure that they're there, and I just thought you should know."

Realization spread through James as he listened to Lily's speech, and he could hardly believe his ears. He told her of his feelings, barely hoping to escape being laughed at. And now, here was Lily Evans, the girl of his dreams, telling him she had feelings for him. After he realized this, he hardly heard what she was saying, trying to make sense of everything. Finally, he became aware that she'd stopped talking.

"Lily?"

"I know, you probably think I'm so stupid and crazy and I don't know what. First, I'm really mean to you, then I start crying all over you, and then, I'm telling you I have feelings for you. You must think, well, I don't even know what you must be thinking of me now. But…"

"Lily!" James interrupted her. "Lily, I don't thing you're stupid, or crazy, or anything like that. I think you're the most amazing person in the world, and right now, all I can think of is that I actually may have a chance with Lily Evans! If I didn't think you'd slap me and change your mind, I'd kiss you right now." He was so happy at hearing everything that Lily had said, his enormous smile was almost bursting into a laugh.

"Really?" Lily asked, almost afraid to believe that, among everything bad that had just happened, something so good, yet so unexpected was happening to her.

"Yes, really," James smiled.

"Then kiss me," Lily said, looking up at him.

"What?" James asked, not sure if he was hearing her right. Only a couple of hours ago, Lily thought he was an arrogant jerk, now she wanted him to kiss her. He was afraid that it was just some side effect of the grief, and didn't want their first kiss to be a mistake and for her to hate him even more for it later. "Are you sure? I mean, you're not just confused with everything that's happening?"

"Yes, James. I wouldn't risk ruining what I'm feeling for you right now by being unsure. As a matter of fact, wanting you to kiss me right now is about the only thing I _am sure about."_

"_Really?" It was James's turn to ask._

"_Yes, really," Lily smiled._

_James took a deep breath, barely conscious to what was happening. He leaned forward and softly touched his lips to hers, hesitantly at first, then more assuredly. Her mouth moved in perfect rhythm with his, and electricity flowed through their lips. It seemed to last an eternity and to be over in an instant all at the same time. When he pulled away, he looked at her and said, "I know that you're not ready to say this, and I know you're confused about a lot of things right now, but I have to tell you this: I love you Lily Evans. I love you so much."_

"_James, I, I think I love you too. I love you James. Please don't think I that I'm only saying this because of what happened, or that I'm some silly girl who can't make up her mind what she's feeling. Because I am confused about a lot of things, but there's one thing that is becoming clearer and clearer to me. James, I've known you for so many years without really knowing you. I feel like in this one night, I've grown to know you more than all of our years at Hogwarts combined. And now, I can truly, honestly, and sincerely say, I love you. I really don't know how this happened, but I do. And I don't know how I'd have gotten through this night without you. Thank you so much." Tears were filling her eyes again, but they both knew that these were a different kind of tears._

_They were both sitting in one armchair now, and Lily leaned her head on James's shoulder. His arm was around her, and his head was resting on top of hers. The fire had died long ago, and a tiny bit of sunlight was beginning to shine through the window on the far side of the room. Neither one of them realized it at that moment, but they were soon to begin an adventure together that would be remembered by generations to come. They couldn't realize that their love, their bond would create something, or someone rather, who was so powerful, that he would change the fate of the world. At that moment, all they knew was that they had finally found each other, and that as long as they had each other, everything would be alright._


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"James?" Lily said, turning to face him.

"Yes," he replied, brushing away a strand of her silky hair from her face.

"Let's go somewhere, okay? I don't know where I want to go, but I just couldn't stand talking to anyone else now. I want it to stay just the two of us for now, I need a little more time before I talk to anyone else."

"Alright, I think I know somewhere we can go. Wait here, I'll be right back." James stood as he said this, and quickly but quietly ran up the stairs for his bedroom. This time, no sounds came to stop him, and after just a couple of minutes, he returned with an old piece of parchment, a couple of jars, a box, and a large cloak.

"Where are we going?" asked Lily skeptically. "What do we need that stuff for?"

"You'll see," James said with a smile. "Just come here."

Lily got up and walked toward him as he stuffed the jars and box into his pocket. When she was standing right next to him, he threw the cloak over them both. "What are you doing, James!" Lily asked, really confused now. "What's with the cloak?"

"Not just any cloak, Lil. This is an invisibility cloak. It was my great-great-grandfather's, and it's been passed down for generations. Take a look for yourself."

Lily turned toward a mirror on the wall. To her surprise, she was not in the reflection. Instead, it showed the table and chairs behind her.

"Now, are you ready?" asked James, clearly enjoying the bewildered look on Lily's face. "Follow me. We'll have to walk slowly to make sure the cloak doesn't slip off one of us."

Under his breath, Lily heard him mutter what sounded like a spell. "What are you doing now? James Potter, you're just full of surprises, now aren't you!" She said, almost laughing at his delight in confusing her.

"Take a look at this," He said, showing her the piece of parchment, which had been blank only a moment ago. Now, however, it was covered in what seemed to be a map of all of Hogwarts. Also, there were hundreds of tiny dots labeled with names. Most were in their dormitories, snoring away. A few early risers, mostly teachers, were waking and starting to move around. "This is the Marauder's Map. Sirius, Lupin, Peter and I made it. Well, really Sirius, Lupin and I made it, but we still give Peter a bit of credit. It shows all of Hogwarts, hidden passages and all, as well as every person in it. It took us all of our second year, and a good chunk of our third to finish it."

He looked very proud of his handiwork as he displayed the treasured map for Lily. She had not known exactly how talented James was, though he was tying her at the top of their class. She was very impressed, and smiled at him in admiration at his work.

"So, exactly were on this map are we going?" She asked.

"Patience, Lily, patience. Just follow me."

Resignedly, she followed him out the portrait hole and down one corridor after another for what seemed like forever. Finally, he stopped in front of a large, cracked mirror and pulled out his wand. He tapped the mirror twice in the center and muttered something under his breath. To Lily's surprise, it instantly slid to the side and revealed a large room. "Come on," James said as he led the way into the room. The mirror slid back into place as they walked inside, leaving them in a very dark room.

"Ok, James, so no one will bother us here, but I can't see a thing!" Lily said as she fumbled in her pockets for her wand. "Lumos."

"No need for that here in just a minute." James said as he pulled the jars out of his pocket. He opened each of them and sat them on the ground. He knelt next to one and said, "Inflamara!" A burst of blue flames erupted from the tip of his wand, and filled the jar. He repeated this with each of the jars, and soon the room was filled with flickering light. They conjured up a couple of armchairs, but opted to sit in the same one.

"What is this place, James, and how did you find it?" Lily asked as she looked around. It was like any other room in school, if a bit larger than most. There was a conspicuous lack of windows, but other than that, and the fact that seemingly no one else knew it was there, it could have been any old unused classroom.

"We troublemakers tend to find all of the nooks and crannies in a place like this," he replied with a shrug. "Sirius and I found this when we were running from Filch. He seemed to think we set of some dungbombs in the Slytherin's corridor."

Lily chose to ignore the reference to his rule breaking habit. After a few minutes of silence, James asked her, "What's the matter, are you alright?"

"Yeah, I guess so. Well, no actually. I was just thinking of my mom and dad. I, I just miss them so much already. I didn't even get to say goodbye. And Petunia, how am I ever going to get her to forgive me? You saw the letter. She blames me for everything. How am I ever going to make her understand what happened? We used talk about everything. Things have been different between us since I got my letter and came to Hogwarts. And now when I need her most, she hates me, and doesn't want anything to do with me."

"Oh, Lily," James sighed as he stroked her hair and looked into her eyes, shimmering with tears in the firelight. "She'll come around, okay? Your sister loves you, but she's just confused right now. She doesn't understand about the Death Eaters and magic, so she's laying the blame on you. Just give her some time. It'll all be okay, and in the meantime, you can just come to me if you need to talk about something, alright? Just remember, I'll always be here for you."

"I know you will James. And that means so much to me; I just wish I had my sister too." She leaned her head on James's shoulder and closed her heavy eyes. The night without sleep was catching up to her, and suddenly, she felt as though she couldn't keep her eyes open for another minute.

James turned to see a sleeping Lily and smiled at the peaceful look on her face. He slowly eased out his wand and conjured a blanket. He started to stand, but when he moved, he heard Lily mutter something in her sleep. He leaned closer to hear what she was saying. "James, I love you James. Stay with me, please James?" He smiled to himself, his heart filling with contentment as he settled back down in the chair. He fixed the blanket to keep Lily warm in the somewhat drafty room, and laid down, wrapping his arm around her. He fell asleep with the scent of her hair filling his nose, and happy thoughts filling his mind.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey, all, thanks for reading! I haven't had ANs on the last two chapters because I keep forgetting them, and since I'm new to this, I haven't really looked into how to edit my files, so…anyway, hope you like what's happening so far, please review and let me know what you think! Don't own these characters, wish I did. Then I wouldn't have to worry about the test I have tomorrow… Anyway, hope you like! **

**Chapter 3**

**It took James a minute to realize where he was, who he was with, and why he was there with her when he woke up. Then he remembered everything that had happened the night before: Lily's letter, the news about her parents, telling her of his feelings for her, finding out she returned the feelings, the kiss, and then falling asleep in the chair. He wandered how long they'd been here like this, and slowly raised his arm, careful not to wake Lily, and looked at his watch; it was ten minutes till noon.**

**He heard his stomach rumble, not having eaten anything since around 6:00 the night before. He gently shook Lily's shoulder, "Lily. Lily, wake up. It's almost 12:00, we need to get something to eat."**

"**What?" mumbled Lily groggily. "Where am I?" She looked around and rubbed her eyes. She drew in a sharp breath when she saw James sitting next to her. "Oh, hi James. I, uh, I almost forgot what happened last night there for a minute. Uh, how long have we been sleeping; what time is it?"**

"**About 12:00." He said as he ran his fingers through her hair. "I like playing with your hair more than mine." He told her. "It's a lot softer, and a lot prettier, too."**

**She smiled as he leaned in to kiss her forehead. "I'm hungry, are you?" He asked her, and got to his feet. If you don't feel like going to the Great Hall, I could bring you something," he offered. **

"**No, that's okay," she said. "I'll come. I'll have to talk to Dumbledore about going home for a week or so to settle things, and I should talk to my teachers, too, about missing work." She tried to keep her voice even and calm, but James could see how much it hurt her to talk about these things. He wished he could do something to make things easier, but he didn't know what he could do. **

"**Alright then, but why don't you wait to talk to Dumbledore and the teachers. Or better yet, why don't I do it for you? I know you don't feel like talking about this stuff now, and I know what's going on." He said, hoping this might help.**

"**Thanks, James, but I need to talk to them myself." She told him. "It might help for you to be there with me, though. Moral support."**

"**Of course." James said, relieved he could be of some use. "Whatever you need."**

**Lily smiled in gratitude and said, "Right now, what I need is something to eat. Let's go!"**

**Lily took his hand and started for the door, but James stood still for a moment. "What's the matter?" she asked him.**

"**Nothing, really. I was just thinking how incredibly lucky I am to have you here with me." James looked deep into her eyes, and cupped her face in his hands. He leaned in and kissed her lips softly. "I love you, Lily."**

"**I love you, too, James," she told him, never meaning anything so much in her entire life. "I love you too."**

**Again, she took his hand, and they walked slowly out the door and down the passageways to the Great Hall. The Hall was buzzing with the normal Saturday afternoon chatter when they walked through the doors. As they walked in, all eyes turned to them and the chatter died away.**

"**Why are they all looking at us?" Lily whispered to James, cheeks burning at the excessive attention. She was a fairly popular girl, so she was used to some notice, but this was just too much. **

"**No one expected US to walk in together." James explained. "They must think you've gone mad. If you remember, just yesterday you avoided me like the plague."**

"**Oh, yeah. Sorry 'bout that, by the way. Still, I wish they'd stop." She told him, gripping his hand a little tighter. **

"**Come on, do you want to sit with Remus and Sirius, or do you have someone else you want to sit with?" he asked her. **

"**We can sit with your friends, that's fine." She said, still wishing everyone would stop staring.**

**They quickly walked across the room to the Gryffindor table and found Lupin and Sirius to be staring at them just as much as anyone else.**

"**What's up mate?" Sirius called to him. "Where've ya been? And when did Evans start hanging out with you? I thought she had better taste than that." **

"**Hi James, Lily." Remus said quietly. He was just as surprised as Sirius was by Lily Evans suddenly walking around holding his best friend James's hand, but he tended to be a bit more delicate with these things. **

"**Hey, Lupin," James said to Remus as he gave Sirius a look to kill. "We were just going to get something to eat. What are you guys doing today?" **

**Avoiding the subject of Lily suddenly being with him, James made it clear he didn't want to talk about it just then. Sirius, however, wasn't going to give up that easily. It just wasn't in his nature. "'Good to see you, Sirius', 'How's it going, buddy?', 'How've you been?' Real nice of you James, just ignore me over here. Now, I said, 'What's up, mate?' Now it's your turn. And I prefer the answer to be about how the lovely Miss Lily Evans came to be in our humble company today."**

"**Can't we talk about this later, Sirius?" said James, a bit of an edge to his voice. "It's a long story, and one I don't care to go into now."**

"**Oh, come on! What's up with you two! Yesterday, no offence mate, but Evans wouldn't have been caught dead with you! I mean, you know it's true, look around. I'm not the only one curious."**

"**Just drop it, okay Sirius! Lily got some news last night, we talked, and that's all there is to it! Now just leave it alone!" James was getting really worried now. He could feel Lily's fingers growing colder in his hands, and a blank look was covering her face. She didn't look like she was going to cry, it was as though she had gone numb.**

"**Sirius," Lupin said. "Stop, okay. Can't you see she's upset? Just leave it be for now."**

**When Sirius turned toward Lily and saw the look on her face, he fell silent. "I'm sorry, Evans. Didn't mean to upset you or anything. You, uh, you alright?" he mumbled, an embarrassed look on his face. This was unusual, as Sirius Black was rarely embarrassed, and even more rarely apologized.**

"**I'm fine, Sirius. It's okay. And James, it's alright if they know. This is Hogwarts after all. They'll find out soon enough." Lily had a forced a calm expression and turned to face both Sirius and Remus. "Last night, my younger sister, Petunia, sent me a letter. It, uh, it said that a group of wizards broke into my house and killed my parents. They were Death Eaters. James was with me when I found out, we talked, and he was there for me and helped me not to blame myself too much for what happened. So now, here we are. Together."**

**Lily took a deep breath and checked the tears threatening to fall. Sirius looked stricken, and muttered an apology. Remus patted her hand and told her how sorry he was. James squeezed her hand as she laid her head on his shoulder, the strength sapping away from her. **

"**Here, you need to eat something," said James after a moment of silence, pushing a plate of food toward her. She picked up her fork, moving the food around on her plate more than actually eating anything. The knot in her stomach left no room for food. **

**After several minutes, she said, "James, if you're finished eating, would you mind going with me to talk to Professor Dumbledore?"**

"**Yeah, of course." He said, standing as he took one last drink of pumpkin juice. "Ready when you are."**

**She smiled a smile that didn't reach her eyes, and took his hand as they walked out of the Great Hall. Lily had only been to the Headmaster's office once to discuss Head Girl duties, but James had been there many times for less responsible reasons. His footsteps were sure as he made his way down the corridors and up the stairs, stopping when they had reached the stone gargoyle guarding the staircase that lead to Dumbledore's office.**

"**Hmm, let's see." Said James, studying the statue. "Chocolate Frogs? Cauldron Cakes? No? How about…Jelly Slugs!" The gargoyle leapt to the side, and James led Lily up the spiraling stairway. At the top, he knocked on the door.**

"**Come in," came a voice from within. The door creaked open at the sound of the voice, and they walked inside. "Ah! Miss Evens, Mr. Potter! How are you? Isn't this a surprise! Miss Evans, I don't think I've ever seen you this close to Mr. Potter without shouting at him, generally something he deserves, though." He added with a glint of amusement in his eyes.**

"**Uh, Professor, Lily got a letter last night, by the muggle post. She, uh, she needs to talk to you about it." Lily's hands felt like ice, and she was shaking slightly.**

"**Oh, yes? What can I do for you, Miss Even?" **

**Lily pulled the crumpled piece of paper that was the letter from her pocket. She had put it there the night before after James had read it. With a deep breath, she stepped forward and handed it to Dumbledore.**

**Dumbledore's face was serious now, seeing the pain on Lily's face. He took the letter and quickly read its contents, his eyes growing graver every second. After several minutes of silence, Lily said to him, "Professor, I need to go home."**

"**Yes, yes I suppose you do." He said, still looking at the letter. He raised his head to face Lily. "Do you have any idea who did this?" He asked.**

"**Specifically, no. But it WAS the Death Eaters. I know it was, that's the only explanation. They're the only one who could do something so horrible. They had to be the ones who killed my parents." She said this with a blank expression, but James could feel her cold hand tremble, and squeezed it gently.**

"**Professor, if I could, I'd like to go with Lily." James said, glancing at her as he said this. "I don't think she should go alone."**

"**I quite agree, James, and if Lily wants you to go, you have my permission." Dumbledore replied. "Lily? Would you like James to go with you?" He asked kindly.**

"**Yes, yes, thank you, Professor." Lily said, giving James a sad but grateful smile.**

"**I'll talk to your professors for you and send an owl with any assignments so you can go ahead and pack if you like," Professor Dumbledore offered.**

"**Thank you, sir." She replied as James led her out of the room.**

"**I dare say your house isn't a part of the Floo Network, so I'll have Hagrid bring a couple of thestrals up for you to ride into Hogsmeade on. You can aparate from there." **

"**Yes sir, thank you."**

**When they were out of the office and the door was closed, though she tried to brush it away before he saw, James noticed Lily wipe a tear from her cheek. He turned her so she faced him and kissed her softly on her lips, willing her sadness to leave her and fill him instead. When he pulled away, he held her close and stroked her hair, and they stood there for several minutes at the top of the steps as though no one and nothing else existed in the entire world. **

"**I love you James." She murmured, burying her face in his chest. "I don't know what I'd have done if you weren't there with me last night."**

"**I love you too, Lily. I love you too." He said, and kissed the top of her head, wondering how it was possible to feel so happy, yet so sad all at the same time.**


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Hey, all! Thanks for reading, PLEASE review! Thanks to my one reviewer so far, Ginevra1988.

I don't own this, wish I did (don't we all?). Fair warning, I did write this story before reading the final HP book, so the Snape presented here might not fit perfectly with what we now know of him, but I hope you can appreciate this just the same. Enjoy!

Chapter 4

As they walked down the corridors, they saw Severus Snape with his head bent down over a thick, black leather-bound book. His greasy hair was curtained over his face and his prominent nose less than an inch from the page. Normally, James would have taken this chance to practice some spells on Snape, or as he and his friends called him, Snivellus. James wasn't really a bully, but Snivellus was constantly studying dark magic, which James couldn't stand.

But today, he knew Lily needed him, and he was fully ready to let Snivellus walk past without remark. Snape, however, had a different idea. He couldn't stand captain-of-the-Quidditch-team, Mr. Popularity, top-grades-in-the-class James Potter. At one time, he and Lily had been close friends, but that friendship faded with Severus's fascination with the dark arts. Since the day Lily had said she could no longer be friends with someone so preoccupied with evil, and who hated muggle-borns, Severus has been angry and resentful toward her, taking any chance he can find to hurt her as he has been hurt.

"Ah, look at that! The little mudblood has finally decided to go with Potty! Isn't that sweet? What changed your mind, Mudblood? Wanted to be part of a _real_ wizard family? Potty's is one of the few who'll let muggle-borns in, guess he was your last option, huh?" Snape sneered at her, willing her to break down and cry, but she just stood there, her eyes staring forward, but seeing nothing.

James, however, couldn't just stand there. As much as he wanted to stay calm for Lily's sake, Snape had crossed the line the minute he opened his mouth, and it was about then when James drew his wand from his pocket.

"Back off, Snivellus! Just leave her alone!"

"So you're the Mudblood's protector, huh? What are _you_ gonna do, _Potty?"_

"_I'm warning you!" James shouted._

_Lily looked into Snape's eyes with a cold unblinking stare until he flinched under her unwavering gaze. "You know, Severus, it's people like you, with you superiority complexes and ignorant mind-sets and who think that they're better than everyone else just because their families have interbred for centuries so that they're "pure", well, it's people like you who are the reason my parents are dead. Now, if you don't care, I'm going to my room, excuse me." And with that, she took James' hand and walked quickly past the stunned Severus Snape and towards the Gryffindor common room._

"_Are you okay?" asked James as they walked down the empty corridors, still rather stunned from her outburst with Snivellus. Not only was it unusual for Lily Evens to lose her temper, but that was also the first person she'd told about her parents, aside from Professor Dumbledore and himself. 'Oh, well,' he thought, 'Snivellus definitely deserved to be shouted at, if not a bit more than that.' Still, he was concerned about how Lily was feeling; she hadn't said a word for the past five minutes as they walked toward the common room._

"_Fine. I'm fine. Well, not fine, but you know." Lily answered. "I don't have the patience for the git, you know." She was silent again and quickened her step. "I'll just and to go pack and leave as soon as possible."_

"_Alright," said James, unsure of whether she wanted him to talk or not. He decided it was probably best if he just listened to whatever she needed to say, and then he could talk if he felt like he should, or if she wanted him to._

_Lily stopped suddenly, a strange, sad expression on her face. She turned to face James and said, "Thank you, you know, for offering to go with me. But I know you've got a lot of thing going on right now, the Quidditch finals coming up and all, and you don't have to come. I'll be alright. I don't want you to feel like you have to come or anything, and, well, McGonagall's counting on you." She turned away, trying to hide the film of tears that were covering her eyes._

"_Lily, do you really think that Quidditch is more important to me than you?" he asked incredulously. He turned her to face him, wiped the tears that had begun to fall, and looked into her bright green eyes, so beautiful even in their sorrow. "You mean everything to me, and I'm not going to leave you when you need someone the most just for some game. And I hope that that someone you need is me, because I really want to be there for you, okay? I didn't ask Dumbledore to go with you because I feel sorry for you, I asked him because I want to be the one you know you can turn to, I want to be the one who protects you, and comforts you, and makes you laugh when you want to laugh, and holds you when you need to cry. Please don't ever think I'm here out of pity or anything like that. I'm here because I want to be; I'm here because I love you."_

_Lily couldn't say a thing; her throat was too tight from the tears welling up in her eyes. But she nodded her head in silent gratitude and gave James a sad and grateful smile. She pulled his arm around her waist, finding comfort in its strength and warmth, and they continued down the corridor. Where icy cold blackness had enveloped her heart when she had read the letter, a small glow of warmth was burning. The assurance James had given her was enough to give her hope. It would be a long time before the warmth overcame the cold darkness, and the pain of losing her parents would never go away, but this little bit of light would keep her going, and James' love would help her through many dark days._


	5. Chapter 5

Thanks for reading, PLEASE review. Hope you enjoy this story with these characters which I do not own. Also, today's my birthday (yes, I'm pulling out that card), and I think a great present would be lots of detail reviews from all of my readers! I'm fine with criticism, I like general responses too. Thanks bunches!

Chapter 5

James and Lily stood side by side in the mild night air, their trunks packed on the ground next to them. James saw Lily shiver, knew it was not from the temperature, and put his arm around her shoulders. He kissed the top of her head to comfort her, as he was being comforted by the sweet smell of her hair. He turned his head to see a large figure, bigger than any other man James knew, and he seemed to be leading something, and though James couldn't see them, he knew what they were.

"'ello James, Lily," said Hagrid as he walked up, his eyes creased with concern. "I'm sorry to 'ear 'bout your parents, Lily. I didn't know 'em, but I heard they was good people. Must've been, to 'ave a sweet girl like you." Though his thick beard hid it, James could tell Hagrid had a sad smile on his face, and his eyes expressed his sorrow for Lily as much as anything else.

Lily tried to hold back the tears as she answered, "Yes, they were the best parents anyone could ask for. I'm, I'll miss them," she said, her voice breaking.

"You know, I lost me dad when I was just a few years younger 'an yerself." Hagrid said, his eyes shining. "Anyway, I know what yer goin' through," he told her, clearing his throat. "'ere," he said, thrusting the reins of the invisible beasts toward James. "Just give 'em a smack on the rump when you reach 'ogsmeade, and they'll find their way back 'ere."

James felt around for the thestral's back, and then helped Lily on. He then cast a spell on the trunks to make them light enough to strap them onto the second thestral's back. "Will he follow, Hagrid?" James asked to be sure all of their possessions wouldn't end up in another country.

"Oh, yeah, 'course 'e will! Bloody smart, thestrals are." Hagrid praised them as he gave one a scratch behind what James presumes was the ear.

"Alright then," he said as he climbed onto the back of the thestral carrying Lily. "Guess we'll be off. Good-bye Hagrid."

"Good-bye James, Lily. 'ope to see you again soon."

Lily just realized they were leaving in time to say a quick, distant good-bye to Hagrid before they were off of the ground. She drew in a sharp breath as they took off, very aware of the fact that see could see no means of support under her, though she could feel the wings of the beast beating uncomfortably beneath her.

"You alright?" James asked her, wrapping his arm tighter around her waist, and breathing in the intoxicating smell of her hair. "It'll only be a few minutes before we reach Hogsmeade."

"Yes, I'm alright," she answered, trying not to look down, but finding it nearly impossible. Her stomach squirmed and her head spun at the sight of the ground so far away, but it was a welcome sensation, as was anything other than the constant pressing grief which had engulfed her that night before when she received her letter. It was such a short time that had passed, yet it seemed like an eternity. Each breath, each beat of her heart was years long, and her grief was continuously pressing harder and harder, only relenting in those brief moments when James pulled her out of her own being, into another world. In those moments, they were the only two in existence, and nothing else mattered, nothing else even _was, so how could anything hurt her? Then, when the moment ended, all of the harsh realities came rushing back, and the grief began pressing once again._

_As promised by James, it was only a few moments before they reached Hogsmeade, a small wizarding village, and the thestrals landed with considerable grace in a dark street, away from all of the people and their noise and laughter. They climbed down and untied their trunks from the second thestral's back, then did as Hagrid instructed and slapped them on where they judged their rumps to be, and looked in their direction as though watching them go. After a minute, they turned and grabbed their trunks._

"_Ready?" James asked, looking at Lily. _

"_Ready." She answered, glancing back at him, a strange, sad smile flickered across her lips._

_They each held the handle of their trunks in one hand, and held each other's hand with their other, closed their eyes, and with a turn and a loud crack, they were gone, the dark street empty once again._

_When James and Lily opened their eyes, they saw another dark, empty street, but this one was different. It was lined with comfortable-looking houses, with colorful flower plots in front of porches and bicycles leaning against walls, and a toy left in the yard here and there. They walked down past several such houses, rolling their trunks behind them, before stopping at one, perhaps a bit smaller than most of the others, and no bicycles or toys in the yard. The flower plot, though colorful, showed signs of neglect in the weeds that were beginning to sprout. _

"_Here we are," said Lily, her eyes swimming with tears. She had cried so much lately, she wondered at there being any tears left for her to cry, but still they came._

_James wiped away a fallen tear with his thumb and squeezed her icy hand before walking toward the house. Lily followed reluctantly, and they slowly climbed the creaking porch steps. They stopped at the door and he looked at her, unsure whether he should ring the bell or walk in, and she just nodded to the bell. He pushed it, and heard footsteps nearing the door, then the knob turned and the door opened to reveal a skinny girl of about thirteen with a sharp chin, horsy teeth, and cold eyes. She appeared at first surprised, then angry by the sight of Lily at the door._

"_Hello, Petunia," Lily said softly._


	6. Chapter 6

Please review, hope you enjoy! I don't own these characters or their world.

Chapter 6

"Lily," Petunia replied coldly. Her icy gaze drifted only a moment to glance at James, and then returned to her loathed sister. "What are you doing here?" she spat, "And who is HE?" She nodded tersely at James.

Lily struggled to remain calm. "I'm here to day good-bye to Mom and Dad, and to talk to you." Her eyes shone brightly and her voice shook, but no tears fell.

"How dare you!" Petunia shrieked. "How dare you come here? You're the reason they're gone! You! And you come trotting up here with one of your freakish friends, acting like you care! You were always Mom and Dad's favorite; they'd have done anything for you. They were so proud when you went to the freak school, and you were just as happy as you could be, leaving us behind. They did everything for you, and now, because of you, they're dead."

"I do care, Petunia!" Lily cried out, one tear slipping down her cheek. She quickly brushed it away. "I loved them so much, and I still do love them. And I love you too. Please Petunia, let me in. I want to talk to you."

Wordlessly, Petunia opened the door and stepped aside, grudgingly allowing them into the house. They walked in to a warmly lit room, though you could tell it hadn't been cleaned properly for a few days. Dust was beginning to accumulate on the furniture, and there where a few dishes on the coffee table where a single person had had a meal, and a half filled tea cup set on a saucer. They sat down side by side on a soft couch, James holding Lily's hand to lend her some comfort.

"I'm so sorry about Mom and Dad." Lily started with a trembling voice. "I, I still can't believe what happened, that someone would do something like that. But, you have to know that I didn't know something like this would happen. If I had, I'd have given up magic; I'd have never gone to Hogwarts. And you should also know that I think I know who did it; they're the only ones who could have, who even would have. It had to be the Death Eaters."

"The WHO?" Petunia forgot her anger in her confusion. Though anyone on the wizarding world would instantly know this infamous group, a muggle like Petunia would have no idea of the significance of the Death Eaters.

"The Death Eaters, the followers of You-know-who. Well, no, I guess you wouldn't know. Petunia, there are dark wizards, just as there are dark, evil people. There's one in particular who hates muggles and muggle born witches and wizards." Lily's voice was hard as stone now, and had a robotic sound. "And Professor Dumbledore protects all of us at Hogwarts, but You-know-who won't give up so easily on having revenge on those of us so arrogant enough to believe we're worthy of calling ourselves wizards and witches. So, since he couldn't kill me, he killed my parents."

"It IS your fault then. I thought it was, but I didn't know for sure until now. You come in here spouting all this stuff about YOU-KNOW-WHO and DEATH EATERS. You didn't even tell me his name –I guess you're too much of a coward to say it- but that's alright. He may have been the one who killed them, but you, SISTER, you're the reason they're dead!" Petunia's voice was deathly and filled with venom. "Get out of this house! Take your freak-boyfriend with you, and take this too." She pulled out a scrap of black cloth from the drawer of a desk in the corner of the room and flung it at her. "The ones who killed MY parents left this. Oh, and don't you DARE come to their funeral. I don't care what _magic_ powers you have, I will have you thrown out of there so fast, you won't have time to whip out the ruddy bit of wood!"

Lily bit back the tears that were burning in her eyes, picked up the piece of cloth and leaned on James as the walked out the door. As James reached for the handle, Lily turned to her sister and said, "I still love you Petunia, and I hope one day, you'll love me again too. And his name, the killer of _our parents, it's Lord V- Vold- Voldemort. " _

_With that, the dam of tears broke and she hurried out of the opened door, leaving James standing there alone. He wanted desperately to run after her, to comfort her, but he had something to say. He had sat there in silent fury as Petunia beat Lily down with her words. He knew she was having a rough time, but he couldn't stand to see Lily hurt like that, and he couldn't remain silent any longer._

_He turned his calmly cold eyes on Petunia and said, "It's not her fault, you know that, don't you? She's dying inside from the pain of losing her parents, dealing with the guilt that she doesn't deserve. That's not the saddest part, though. The saddest part is that she came here to go through this with her sister, who she loves, and now it seems she's lost her too. You don't deserve her, but she'd come back here in a minute if you needed her, that's the kind of person she is. And YOU are hurting her as badly as losing her parents."_

_He couldn't look at her anymore; he needed to go to Lily. He couldn't waste his time here; Petunia was a lost cause. He walked out the door and pulled it quietly behind him. It would do him no good to go off slamming doors or yelling, right now all that mattered was Lily._

_He found her in the overgrown flower garden, her head buried in some fragrant plant, sniffling back her tears. He knelt down beside her and placed his hand on her back, a comforting gesture that just a short while ago he didn't think she would let him do, now seemed like the most natural thing in the world. She turned from the plant and buried her head in his shoulder instead. As he kissed her hair and rubbed her back, he glimpsed a piece of fabric on the ground. He recognized it as the scrap of cloth Petunia had given Lily, and picked it up. On the ordinary black cloth, there was a not-so-ordinary green mark. It was a skull with a twisting serpent coming out of its mouth. It was the Dark Mark, the mark of Lord Voldemort. _

"_So, now I know for sure," Lily said as she regained the use of her voice and pulled away slightly from the comfort of James' warm shoulder. "It's not just a guess anymore. Now I'm sure."_

"_I'm so sorry, Lily," said James, his throat aching with compassion for Lily, his heart nearly breaking in two. _

"_It's alright James," Lily said, staring into the darkness. "He may have killed my parents, but he made a mistake leaving me alive. And that's a mistake he'll live to regret."_


	7. Chapter 7

Hello lovlies! Thanks for reading, hope you're enjoying. The problem with half of my documents ending up italicized has been brought to my attention. I'm not sure why, but when I use italics on a word, it seems that everything after that point in the document becomes italicized when I upload it. The only way I know to fix this is by not using italics at all, and since I rely on them some to convey emphasis, there may be some points that seem a little flat. As always, I don't own these characters. Enjoy!

Chapter 7

Since they were obviously not going to be able to stay at Lily's house, James and Lily decided to apparate to James' parent's house. "They'll be happy meet you," James said, trying to make conversation. Lily had barely said anything since they left her mother's flower garden. "They've heard Sirius tease me enough to be curious about you." James was glad it was dark, so she couldn't see him blush in embarrassment. Normally, Lily would have blushed as well, thinking of how she had misjudged James, but now she was too busy thinking of her parent's funeral, and how she wasn't going to be able to be there.

"Yeah," Lily muttered, "I'll be glad to meet them too."

"Hey, Lily," James said, stopping and reaching for her hand. "You OK? Do you need to talk?"

"No, I'm fine James," said Lily, snapping back to reality. "I just, I just wish I could go, say good-bye, you know?" Her throat was growing tight, and she had to quit talking before her tears broke through again. She had cried so much lately, she just wanted to be happy again.

"To the funeral? Of course you're going." James said, his eyebrows arched in surprised.

"What do you mean? You heard Petunia, she said she'd have me thrown out, and I don't want to do something so selfish to ruin Mom and Dad's funeral."

"She can't throw you out if she can't see you," James replied simply. "And we don't have magic for nothing, now do we. You'll go to you're parent's funeral, Lily Evens, I can promise you that."

"Thank you James!" Lily cried in gratitude, and threw her arms around his neck, sobbing softly into his shoulder. "I don't care how you do it, but if you can get me there without her seeing, I'll, I'll, I don't know what I'll do. It would mean so much to me."

"Really, it's no big deal. I mean, I've had years of practice, sneaking into places. Just ask Dumbledore. Of course, he caught me sometimes, but he knows a bit more about catching people using magic, and even he only caught me SOMEtimes." James smiled, glad to be able to do something to help Lily.

"Oh, but James, it is a big deal. It is SUCH a big deal to me. I don't know what I'd do without you, I just. Thank you. Thank you for everything."

James was a bit uncomfortable with such praise, but pleased just the same. He grabbed her hand and asked, "Are you ready?" She nodded. "Let's go then." They grabbed their trunks, closed their eyes, and with a loud pop, like the crack of a whip, they were gone.

They reappeared on a gravel road, about a quarter of a mile from a large white house, which was more the size of a mansion really. Large white columns supported a terrace that shaded a large porch. Soft white curtains shielded the rooms inside from prying eyes, but warm light from within made the large house look inviting and comfortable. Two large oak trees stood in front of the house, giving a cool spot on a hot day, and probably a place for James to climb and play when he was younger. Moonlight spilled from an almost full moon onto the cobbled walk leading to the large French doors.

James looked down at Lily, who smiled faintly at him. "Ready?" He asked. Lily nodded her head, and smiled a bit more assuredly. Hands joined, they walked to the house, levitating their trunks behind them.

James raised his hand to the door handle, but before he could turn it, it flung open. "James!" exclaimed a pretty woman of about forty with long brown hair pulled into a knot at the back of her neck. Her pretty blue eyes, so like her son's, danced with wonder and excitement at seeing her son. "What are you doing here?"

"Hello Mum." James grinned. "Good to see you too." He was obviously very happy to see his mother, but couldn't resist joking a bit with her. He then remembered why he was there, and sobered slightly. Clearing his throat, he said, "Mum, this it Lily. She uh, well, we need to stay here tonight. Don't worry." He added seeing the look in his mother's eyes, "Professor Dumbledore knows we are out of school, we have permission."

Mrs. Potter relaxed a bit, and then said, "Come in then! Don't just stand out in the night air! It's starting to get cold at night, and you'll catch your death out there!" She hurried them inside as though there was a blizzard on the way, and though it was still fairly comfortable outside, they didn't argue.

"Now, James," Mrs. Potter said once she had them sipping tea next to the fireplace, "You've told me you're here with permission of Professor Dumbledore, but you haven't told me why yet." She took a sip from her own cup and waited expectantly for an explanation.

Once again, James wasn't sure what he was supposed to say, so after a moments silence, Lily said, "Mrs. Potter, he's here because of me. My parents have just p-passed away, and James came with me so I wouldn't have to be alone when I talked to my sister. She, she blames me for it." Lily swallowed the knot in her throat and looked down, staring at the intricately designed Oriental rug on the floor. She took a few breaths before continuing. "It was the Death Eaters. They killed my parents because I'm a muggle-born learning magic, so her accusations aren't completely unfounded. But James has helped me realize it's not my fault, and he's helped me so much since I found out. And I'd really appreciate it if you'd let me stay here until the funeral. After that I suppose I'll go back to Hogwarts until I figure out what to do next."

"Of course dear!" exclaimed the sympathetic Mrs. Potter. "You can stay as long as you like. Robert and I, that is to say James' father and I, have heard so much about you, I feel as though I know you."

James' ears burned red with embarrassment at this remark, and he suddenly began concentrating very hard on a spot on the hardwood floor where an ember fallen from the fire had left a black burn mark.

"Oh, thank you Mrs. Potter!" Lily said, her voice full of emotion. "I don't know how I'll repay you." Her cheeks had burned at Mrs. Potter's remark as well, but she concentrated instead on her gratitude to the Potters, without whom she would have been lost at this time.

"Oh, my dear, I'm just happy I can help. I only wish there was something more I could do."

"You've helped so much already through your own kindness. And through James of course, I'm sure you had a rather big part in his being such a kind person." Lily blushed even as she said this, but needed to show James her gratitude, and found it a bit easier to pay a compliment to James' mother rather than to James directly.

Mrs. Potter smiled and was truly pleased by this, as is any mother when someone compliments her child. "Well now, it's getting rather late, your father's already asleep, but we can tell him about all of this in the morning. You two had better get on to bed. James, show Lily to one of the guest rooms." James snapped out of the trance he had been in since the comment from his mother. Even what Lily had said only barely permeated. "Oh, and don't STAY in the guest room, James. I expect you to sleep in your own room tonight."

James blushed even deeper at this; his mother seemed to have some sort of power when it came to saying things that mortified him. "Goodnight, Mum," He mumbled, leading Lily up the stair.

"Goodnight Mrs. Potter." Lily said as she followed.

"Sorry about that." James said glancing over his shoulder as he walked up the stairs. "She means well."

"I know," Lily said softly. "I like her. She- she reminds me of my own mum. She's sweet, and cares about everyone; even a stranger like me."

They stopped in front of a heavy oak door. James reached for the knob and bowed as he said, "Your room, My Lady." He pulled it open to reveal a large room with a large four poster bed of cherry wood standing in the middle and two matching cherry end tables on either side. A large cherry chest of drawers stood on the wall opposite of the bed, and an Oriental rug, similar to the one downstairs, filled most of the open space of the floor. Directly across from the door, a desk sat next to a window with a quill, a bottle of ink and a few sheets of fine white paper. Oil lamps burning on the tables and desk gave the room a soft glow. Lily noticed a crystal cut vase of calla lilies on the chest of drawers, and theirs scent filled the room.

"It's beautiful," Lily said, turning to James. "Thank you, James."

"No problem." He smiled, "My room is down the hall and to the right, if you need anything."

"Alright. Goodnight James."

"Goodnight Lily." He turned to leave.

"James?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for EVERYTHING." She stood up on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek.

"Your welcome for everything," he said and leaned down, kissing her softly on her forehead, then the tip of her nose, then, ever so softly and lovingly, on her lips. He rested his forehead on hers and held her in his arms as he said, "I love you Lily Evans."

"I love you too James Potter." She smiled at him. "I'm still not sure how it happened, but I do."

After a moment standing there, feeling the comfort of each other's arms, they broke apart from the embrace. After one last goodnight kiss, James walked down the hall and disappeared into his room.

"Goodnight," She called softly after him. She didn't think he'd be able to hear her, but he peeked out the door of his room and whispered back, "Goodnight," and gave her one last smile. Lily pulled the door to and crawled into the bed, pulled the soft comforter up around her chin and fell into an exhausted sleep. By the time Mrs. Potter came in ten minutes later with a nightgown for her, she was already deeply asleep.

"Goodnight, my dear." Mrs. Potter said softly as she brushed back a strand of Lily's auburn hair from her face. "Sleep well." She laid the gown at the foot of her bed and crept softly out of the room.


	8. Chapter 8

I don't own these characters, but I hope you like what I've done with them J Oh, and pretty please with sugar on top- review this story!

Chapter 8

When Lily woke up the next morning, the smell of bacon frying and fresh coffee had wafted into her room. She breathed in the aroma and allowed it to fill her before she opened her eyes. The room looked bright and cheerful in the early morning light, ambers and pinks filtering in through the sheer curtains hanging in the window. She sat up and stretched and yawned deeply. She glanced down at her crumple clothes, and remembered she had fallen asleep last night before changing. She looked around and spotted her trunk at the foot of her bed. She rummaged through it until she found some of her muggle clothes she wore when she was away from school. She pulled on a pair of faded blue jeans and a t-shirt, and then ran a brush through her unkempt hair. She was just wondering whether she should go down stairs when she heard a soft knock at the door.

James' familiar voice came through the door. "Lily?" he said. "Are you awake?"

"Yes, I'm awake. You can come in." she replied.

The door creaked open slowly, and James' head appeared peeking through, his hair even more messy than usual. Seeing her already dressed, he came in the rest of the way. He was still wearing his pajamas, which consisted of a white t-shirt and a pair of scarlet flannel pajama pants and, much to Lily's amusement, a pair of thick house socks with snitches on them.

"I like your socks," Lily said, rising to her feet. She walked towards him, and he met her in the middle of the room, wrapping his arms around her waist and resting his forehead on hers.

"Hey you," he said with a smile and a kiss on the top if her head. "Sleep well?"

"Yeah, like a rock." There was just something about James that made her smile. Even when she felt as bad as she had been the past couple of days, he made her feel like there were some things in life that weren't completely horrible. Like, maybe she could be happy again. Not just for the little spurts she felt now, but the real, last forever feeling.

"Good," he smiled. "Come on downstairs, Mum's got a huge breakfast fixed. She didn't know what you like, so I think she fixed everything in the house. Bacon, eggs, toast, pancakes, whatever you like."

"It smells really good," Lily said, the smell making her mouth water. "I just hope she didn't really make all of this because of me; I mean, she's already given me a place to sleep, I don't want to put her out or anything."

"Of course you're not putting her out! She loves fixing this stuff, and she must really like you, she doesn't fix nearly this much for Sirius, even before he started coming nearly every day of the summer." James grinned, partly because he was just happy to have Lily here, and partly because he was glad his mother seemed to like Lily so much.

"Well, I hope she doesn't mind, still. I am hungry though." And as if to emphasize the point, her stomach gave a loud rumble.

James laughed, "Yeah, it sounds like it. Come on; let's go get you some thing to eat."

He took her hand and led her down the hall. They reached the stairs they had walked up the night before, and now that she wasn't half asleep with exhaustion, she noticed how beautiful they were. It was a Grand Staircase, and had a smoothly polished banister. He turned to her with mischief dancing in his eyes and swept her up in his arms, and before she knew what he was doing, he had her sitting in front of him and they were sliding down the banister like twin streaks of lightening. Lily fought back a screaming laugh and failed miserably. James was laughing hysterically behind her, holding her tightly around the waist. After a few adrenaline filled seconds, they landed with a loud 'thunk' in a pile at the bottom of the stairs.

"James!" Lily laughed breathlessly, failing in her attempt to sound angry, which is really quite difficult when you can't stop laughing. "What did you do that for!"

"Fun, wasn't it? Want to do it again?" He said as he gasped for breath.

"No!" she started. "Well, maybe. Just once more. I'll race you!" She jumped to her feet and was halfway up the stairs before he made it to his feet. By the time James was almost to the top, Lily was already zooming back down the banister. James grinned, but his grin turned to a laugh when he looked to the bottom of the stairs, because when Lily reached the bottom, she fell rather gracelessly into a tall dark haired man, knocking them both to the floor.

Lily jumped up, her face burning red. "I'm so sorry! I- I didn't mean to. I, oh, I'm so sorry. Here, let me help you up." She sputtered as she reached for his hand. She shot a desperate look at James, who was still laughing uncontrollably and was jogging down the stairs.

When James regained control of his breath, he said, "Morning Dad, I'd like you to meet Lily Evens. Lily, this is my dad, Robert Potter."

Mr. Potter laughed in a way that reminded Lily of his son and stuck out his hand to her. His bright blue eyes danced merrily as he said, "It's very nice to meet you Lily. Elizabeth, James' mother, told me that you were here. I must say, you're even prettier than I pictured you. James has told us so much about you."

"I, uh, thank you Mr. Potter. It's nice to meet you too." Lily managed, still embarrassed over having knocked James' father to the ground, and now added to that was the remark about James talking about her. If she could have looked at James at that moment, she would have seen that he was every bit as embarrassed as she was, maybe more.

James cleared his throat after a moment and said, "We were, uh, just going to get some breakfast. We got a little sidetracked, though." He added, glancing mischievously at Lily. She blushed even more deeply.

"Yes, I can see that," Mr. Potter smiled. "Well, I'd better be getting to the ministry. They've got a new lead on the case I've been the case I've been working on. Once again, it was nice to meet you, Lily."

"Nice to meet you too, Mr. Potter." Lily said, recovering slightly from her embarrassment.

"See ya Dad."

"Bye James." said Mr. Potter. "Lily, try and keep him out of trouble, ok?"

Lily managed a small laugh at this and promised she would. When Mr. Potter left, Lily elbowed James in the ribs. "Ow! What'd you do that for?" James exclaimed, rubbing his ribs.

"James, that was really embarrassing! The first time I meet your dad, I knock him to the ground! I don't even want to know what he's thinking of me!"

James laughed, "He thinks you're a nice, fun, beautiful girl. And he likes you, I can tell."

"Really? You think so?"

"Of course! How could he not like you! Trust me; this will just be a funny story in the future."

Lily smiled at the way he said 'future' with such certainty. It made her feel secure to know that he intended for them to be together long enough for them to consider the term 'future'. Everything else was too mixed up right now, and this certainty felt good.

"Alright then, it was still really embarrassing, but I guess I can let it slide- no pun intended. Let's go get some breakfast."

James grinned as he took her hand and led her to the dining room where his mother had set out enough food for a small army. The table was laden with toast, eggs, pancakes, jams and jellies, orange juice, milk, and all sorts of good food. James was just pulling out a chair for Lily when Mrs. Potter walked in, carrying a pot of tea.

"Ah, good morning Lily. Did you sleep well?" she said, her smile making Lily feel warm and comforted.

"Yes, ma'am. Thank you. This all looks wonderful." She said, gesturing at the food.

"Why thank you dear," Mrs. Potter said. "You and James eat up, alright? I'll bet you haven't had a decent meal for a couple of days, at least."

While Lily was at Hogwarts, she had felt too numb to eat, and though she was still dealing with her grief, James had been so comforting to her, she felt alive enough to feel her hunger. He had also helped her with her guilt enough to make her realize she didn't have to punish herself by doing things like starving herself. Though Petunia may have been happy with her doing this, she knew her parents wouldn't have liked her to be hurting. So, she ate, really ate, for the first time since receiving the letter. Not as much as usual, but enough to give her strength. Mrs. Potter nodded her approval at her appetite.

When breakfast was over, she excused herself and went to her room. When she walked in, she pulled the door closed and sat on the floor next to her trunk. Slowly, she opened the trunk and pushed aside some of the things that filled it. At the bottom lay the letter that had started this trip. She pulled it out and smoothed it, her hands shaking. On reading the letter, she had only been able to grasp that her parents were dead; most everything else escaped her. Now, she vaguely recalled something else in the letter, something she desperately wanted to know.

Reading this letter brought back the flood of emotions from that night, and she had to fight back the tears as she looked for the information she needed. There, there it was.

'Now, on Sunday, I have to bury our parent. At the age of thirteen, I have to BURY my mum and dad! And I will never forgive you for this Lily. It's your fault…'

Lily stopped reading and closed her eyes. She had found what she needed to know, the day her parents were to be buried, and the tears now swimming in her eyes made it impossible to continue, even if she wanted to. After a minute, she opened her eyes, realizing that this was Sunday. This was the day her parents were to be buried. The day she had to say good-bye to them forever. With a shuddering breath, she laid down on the soft rug and let the tears fall freely, letting them wash away her pain, and loosen the knot that had twisted in her stomach the moment she saw the letter again.


	9. Chapter 9

I don't own it, hope you like it, and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE review!

Chapter 9

A quiet knock at the door woke Lily. She didn't know how long she had been asleep, but someone had come in and covered her with a blanket, and placed a pillow under her head. The letter had been taken from her hand and laid on the top of her trunk, folded so she didn't have to see the terrible words it contained.

James' voice came softly through the door, "Lily? Can I come in?"

"Yes," Lily answered as she stood. "Come in."

"I, uh, came in to check on you earlier, but you where asleep." James said as he entered the room. "I, I saw that the letter said the funeral was today, and found out what time it was. It starts in an hour." His eyes were filled with worry, knowing he had to remind her of her parents, but not wanting to cause her more pain.

"Thanks." Lily said, "For everything. I'll be ready in a few minutes. Have you figured out how to get us into the funeral without Petunia knowing?"

"Yeah, I have. You just go ahead and get ready, and meet me at the bottom of the stairs, alright?"

"Alright."

James smiled as he stroked her hair, "It's going to be ok, Lily, I promise." He kissed her forehead before he walked out the door.

Lily took a deep breath, and then opened her trunk to find something to wear. She knew no one would see her, and that it didn't really matter what she wore, but she wanted to look nice for her parents. She didn't have a black dress here among her Hogwarts clothes, but she found one of navy blue, and cast a simple spell to rid it of wrinkles, as it had been crumpled up at the bottom of the trunk for quite a while. She pulled on the dress and found some shoes that matched, and then brushed her long hair till it was smooth and silky.

As much as she wanted to look nice for her mother and father, she couldn't bring herself to put on any make-up. That was something she always did when she was happy, and was getting dressed up to go somewhere. Also, she couldn't help but remember the times when she was younger and her mum would help her play dress-up, dabbing a bit of gloss on her lips, and rubbing her cheeks with blush. No, she wouldn't paint her face and cover up her pain. This is how she would go, letting her feelings be known to all who looked at her, unmasked by blush and eyeliner.

She glanced in the mirror, seeing her own familiar face, with the unfamiliar grief filling her green eyes. She turned away and walked quickly out of the room, blinking furiously as she made her way down the stair. She felt a wave of comfort, seeing James at the bottom of the step, waiting there for her. He looked handsome in a pair of black dress pants, a crisp white shirt, and a scarlet tie. He looked up anxiously when he heard her coming.

"Are you alright?" he asked her when she reached the bottom of the stairs.

"Yes," she said, and noticed the invisibility cloak folded on the floor next to him. "Is that how we're going to go?" she asked.

"Oh, yes." He said, gathering it up. "I put a charm on it, so no one outside of this can hear anything we say. That way, if you need to say anything or, anything, well, no one will be able to hear you."

Lily knew he meant that if she started crying, no one would be able to hear her. "Thanks." She said. "Are you ready to go?"

"Whenever you are." James replied.

She nodded her head to show that she was ready, and they walked outside. They held each other's hands on the front porch, and with a loud crack, they were about a quarter of a mile from a small church. Floods of memories filled Lily's mind, memories of Easter Sundays, sitting in the pew with her parents and sister, and of Christmas morning. And the most special memory, two summers ago when her parents had renewed their vows in this church. She blinked back the tears from her eyes when she remembered thinking that there could be no two people more in love. Now, their love had been cut short because of someone else's hate. Cold anger replaced the tears and the knot in her stomach tightened.

"You alright?" James whispered.

"Yes, I'm ok. Let's get going, it'll be starting soon." Lily's voice was thick, but she kept a stoic face and began walking slowly towards the church, so the cloak wouldn't slip and give them away.

They waited outside the crowded church until everyone had gone in, so they wouldn't bump someone and cause a disturbance. Finally, they were able to go in. they found an unoccupied corner and waited for the service to begin.

"There're a lot of people here," James remarked. "Seems like your parents were cared about by a lot of people.

"Everyone loved my mom and dad," Lily replied, a sad smile on her lips. "They were the sweetest people, and were friends with everybody."

"That must be where you got it from then," James said as he turned to look at her. "I know they must've been very proud of you."

Lily's throat was closed too tightly to reply. She took a shaky breath as an organ began to play slow mournful music, and the minister stood to give the eulogy.

"We are gathered here in remembrance of…"

Lily couldn't listen to the rest; she buried her face in James' warm shoulder and wept inconsolably for the remainder of the eulogy. Silently, she thanked James for the charm he had placed on the cloak, for though her sobs weren't very loud, she was sure Petunia would have found her and forced her to leave. James stroked her back and whispered calming words, giving her what comfort he could.

After the service was over, after the caskets had been taken to the cemetery, and after the last mourner had left, James and Lily still sat huddled in the corner.

"Lily," James whispered. "Lily, they're all gone. Do you want to go to the burial?"

Lily looked up, "No, no I'll go there sometime by myself; when I can be alone with them." She pulled off the cloak and looked up to the front of the church where the caskets had been. "You know," she said, her eyes unfocused and her voice in another place entirely. "They played my mum's favorite song. It was the one when they carried them out. They didn't play Daddy's song though. Do you want to know why?"

James knew she wanted to tell him, so he asked, "Why?"

"Because it was his and mine together. We used to sing it together all the time. I know that's why Petunia didn't have it played. My dad and I were so close, we talked about everything. I, I don't know what I'm going to do with him gone." She bit her lip to keep from losing control again, but one tear managed to break through, and slip silently down her cheek. James reached out with his thumb and wiped it away.

"Oh, Lily. I'm so sorry. You will get your sister back, ok? And if it takes a while, it takes a while. But please, don't make the mistake of thinking you're alone until then. As far as I'm concerned, you won't ever have to be alone again; I'll always be here for you."

Lily nodded her head, knowing the truth he spoke. How could she have ever thought of him in any other way than sincere and caring? "Thank you James. Thank you." She wrapped her arms around him and buried her face again, her grief, anger, gratitude, and every other emotion that filled her breaking the dam of tears. They sat there like that for what seemed like forever before she pulled back her head and stood.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

"Do you think they're gone now?" Lily asked.

"Yes, they probably are." James stood as he said and looked at her closely. "Do you want to go now?"

Lily nodded. James picked up the cloak, and then took her hand as they walked out the door. They walked down the road until they reached the wrought iron gateway that lead to the cemetery. With a deep breath, Lily walked through the gateway and walked what seemed to be a familiar path.

"Do you know where it is?" James asked, slightly surprised.

"Yes," Lily smiled. "We used to come up here every Sunday to put flowers on my grandparents' graves. My parents were to be buried next to them." Sure enough, two mounds of fresh earth appear up ahead.

"Do, uh, do you want me to wait here?" James asked uncertainly.

"No, no, please, I want you to come with me." Lily said with concerned eyes.

"Of course!" James answered, "I just didn't want to intrude or anything. When you said you wanted to come here by yourself earlier, I, well, I just wasn't sure."

"No, I want you here." Lily said, relief in her voice.

So James walked up with Lily, and knelt next to her on the grass near the graves. There were no headstones yet, only small metal markers to show where they would be. "It takes a little bit before the grave markers are ready, one of the drawbacks of doing things the muggle way." She sniffed a little.

"I wish you could've met my mum and dad. You'd have loved them." She said, wiping away a tear from the corner of her eye. "My grandma loved flowers, and she had the most beautiful garden you could imagine. When she had my mum, she named her for her favorite flower, the rose. Rose described her perfectly too. She had the sweetest laugh, and everyone loved her. Her hair was red, much redder than mine, and she always had such rosy cheeks and was always smiling. My dad, his names was Harry, and he just adored my mother. He'd always buy her little gifts, or bring her little bouquets of roses," she smiled distantly. "It was his own little joke. He loved that she was named for a flower, and that's why they named my sister and me for some of my mum's favorites. He'd laugh and say he picked the prettiest flowers in the garden when he picked us." She bit her lip as the memories tightened her throat and emotion filled her voice. "Oh, James! I miss them so much! What am I going to do without them?"

James pulled her close in a tight embrace, holding her head near his chest. He stroked her hair as she sobbed, and he felt her warm tears as they soaked through his shirt. He let her stay like that for a while before he answered. When her sobs had quieted to a soft sniffing, and her breathing was close to normal, he lifted her face and looked deep into her astonishingly green eyes and said, "Lily, I don't have all of the answers for you now. I can't tell you what's going to happen next, or how you'll deal with losing you parents. But I can tell you this: you are an extraordinarily strong person. You will make it through all of this. You will be happy again; you will go on with your life. I know you will. And, one day, hopefully a long time from now, you will see your parents again. I also know this. From what you've told me, your parents loved you very much. I know that they'd want you to be happy. They wouldn't want you to stop living your life because you couldn't live it with them. So please Lily, if you won't be happy for yourself, if you won't do that, please be happy for them."

Lily took a deep breath and looked back down at the fresh mounds of earth next to her. "I know, James." She said softly. "I know they'd want me to be happy, I know that. And I try to be. But it's just so hard to find room for happiness when, well, it's like there's this huge black weight pressing down on my chest, and every time I start to think of them, it gets heavier, and sometimes it feels like it's just going to crush me. Like, one day, it'll be so heavy, I just won't be able to breath anymore, and that'll just be the end." She eyes had a far away look as she spoke these words. "You know, when you and I started becoming close, after we'd been together and I'd be thinking of you, or how you kissed me, or just something sweet you'd done, I'd all of the sudden want to go talk to my mom. I'd think of writing her, or finding a telephone to call her; then I'd realize that she's gone. She's gone, and I'll never see her again. Her, or my dad, or, as it's looking, my sister." She looked back up at James. "Like I said, I try to be happy, but sometimes it's really hard."

James' heart was breaking with every word she spoke. He longed to say or do something, anything, to take away her pain, but he knew he couldn't. He knew there wasn't anything anyone could say to take this kind of hurt away.

"I just wish there was something I could do, you know?" Lily sighed regretfully. "I mean, I know it must have been hard for Petunia to put together the funeral, but I really wish I could have helped. I think it might have made it feel like I had given them something, or, I don't know, helped them in some way. But it's too late now." She exhaled sharply and stared at a blade of grass that was mixed in with the dirt on a mound.

"Well," James said thoughtfully. "There is something you could do." Lily looked up at him questioningly. He turned to her and said, "Well, the way I understand it, it'll take a couple of weeks at least for your parents to have proper headstone, correct? That is, if you do it the muggle way. Well, if you wanted to, that could be your gift; it could be what you do for them. It's something you can do for them in just a few minutes. You could conjure one for them."

A thoughtful look played on Lily's features for a moment as she considered this. A slow smile appeared, and she turned from gazing distantly at the blade of grass and focused on James. She didn't say a word, but he could tell by the look on her face that she was pleased by the suggestion.

She looked thoughtful for a moment, and then stood slowly. James also stood and backed away from the graves. She turned away from the rest of the cemetery to a nearby wooded area, pulled her wand out from the pocket of her jacket, took a deep breath and closed her eyes. With a skillful flick of the wand, and a spell muttered indistinctly under her breath, a flash of light blazed through the air. They heard a rumble and trees shook slightly at the edge of the woods. Suddenly, a huge flat stone broke the surface of the soil. When it was completely unearthed, it settled softly onto the ground. Then with another muttered incantation, the dirt was cleared away from the surface.

Lily walked slowly to the stone, and James followed. She stopped when she was about four feet away, and just looked at it. With a look of deep consternation, she stood there for a several minutes and just stared at the stone. Finally, she pushed back her sleeves and cleared her throat, though for what reason, James couldn't tell. She hardly ever spoke her spells above a whisper, unless necessary. And this time was no exception. With a few barely audible words and a flick of the wrist, a bright light surrounded the stone.

After just a few seconds, the light died away, and where the rough stone directly from the earth had been, a smoothly polished one now lay. It was a large one for both of them, and was engraved beautifully. On her father's side, it read 'Harry T. Evans- beloved husband and father.' and on her mother's side, 'J. Rose Evans- beloved wife and mother.' Then, below both of them it said, 'A mother and father who will be forever loved and remembered, a man and woman who will never be forgotten, a love that will last through all of the ages- Harry and Rose.' All around the edges, tendrils of roses were carved so they climbed the sides. They crept up from the middle of the bottom, then met at the top, and formed a heart.

"It's beautiful, Lily," James said as he stood next to her and wrapped and arm around her waist. He looked down at her as she gazed at the stone, "Beautiful."

Lily smiled softly and whispered, "Locomotor stone." Obediently, the stone rose a few inches above the ground and obliged as she directed it to her parent's grave where it settled into the ground. "There you are," she said quietly as she stroked the stone. "Hope you like it." She silently wiped a tear from her cheek with the back of her hand. "I love you." She turned away, unable to take it any longer. She started to walk away, but stopped. She turned one last time to the graves, pointed her wand at the ground and whispered something. Suddenly, green film covered the ground. Grass grew over the graves, and the mounds settled a bit. Right in the center of them, next to the stone, a small plant began to grow. It crept up along the stone and wrapped itself around it. Then, as though it was a sped up nature film, buds formed and roses bloomed.

"It looked so bare," Lily explained quietly. "So fresh and, and raw; raw like the hurt of losing them. I couldn't bare it looking that way." James reached for her and put his arm around her waist. She leaned her head against his chest as they began slowly walking out of the cemetery. Lily glanced back, just once, and whispered a good-bye.


	11. Chapter 11

Hey guys, here's another chapter! Hope you like it! PLEASE REVIEW!

Chapter 11

James and Lily walked for hours; James wrapped his arms around Lily's shoulders, at first for comfort, but later for warmth as the night air crept in. The nights were turning colder. Soon winter would come, and with it the snow. Lily pulled James' arm tighter around her as an icy wind whipped her hair around and turned her cheeks and nose rosy. James would have stayed out all night like this, or as long as Lily needed to, but when her hands felt numb and she noticed him shivering, as he had given her his jacket a few hours before, she stopped and turned to him.

"Let's go back to your house James," she said.

"Are you sure?"

She nodded, placed her palm on his cheek, and looked sorrowfully into his eyes. "Yes, I'm sure." She paused. "And thank you James. I, I really don't know what I'd have done if it wasn't for you. Thank you so much." She turned away, her voice breaking, and let her fingertips slide away from his face.

James placed a hand on her shoulder and kissed her hair, then said, "Let's go home."

Lily smiled a small smile to herself at the way he called his house 'home,' as if it was home for both of them. This one short sentence, that one word really, gave her a little glow of warmth in a darkened corner of her heart. She turned back to him and leaned into his side and repeated this comfort-giving phrase, "Let's go home."

When they reached James' house, his parents seemed to be asleep. As they crept into the house, James whispered softly into Lily's ear, "Follow me." He led her past her room and to a door on the right that she knew she should recognize, but couldn't quite remember what it was. "Close you eyes," he said as he led her into the room.

"What are you doing?" Lily asked, curiously.

"Just stay right here, okay?" He told her and left her standing in the middle of the room. "Just, stay right there for just a minute."

"James?" said Lily questioningly and remembering suddenly that this was his room.

"Almost ready," he replied in a rather loud whisper. She heard him shuffling around and muttering a bit, presumably some spell or another. "Ready! Open your eyes" He said, now standing beside her. They were next to a large open window, and just outside it, there was a large terrace. On the terrace, a large blanket was laid out and covered with pillows, and dozens of the little blue-flame-jars he had used in the secret room at Hogwarts were scattered around. With an overly-exaggerated bow, he led her out the window to the terrace. "My lady."

"It's beautiful James!" Lily said in awe as she looked around. She settled down on the blanket and wrapped her arms around a particularly soft pillow. James sat down beside her and she propped herself up against him. "Look at all the stars! Aren't they beautiful?"

"So beautiful." He said, though the sky did not hold his gaze.

She turned and saw him looking at her, and blushed as she realized his meaning. She turned back to the sky and sighed.

"What was that for? The sigh, I mean," James asked.

"Oh, nothing, I was just thinking."

"About?" James prompted.

"You'll think I'm silly." She said, then after a moment, she continued. "Alright, I was just thinking of, of how safe you make me feel. How one minute, I'll feel so lost and like nothing will go right again, and then you'll say something or do something, and I'll feel, I'll feel comforted, and safe, and like this is how it should be. You and me, here together, or wherever together; just as long as we're together, everything will be ok. Silly, huh?"

"No, not silly at all." James said seriously. "True. I feel the same way, and you should know that everything will be okay, as long as it's in my power to make it that way. I'll do anything for you, and I'll always be here for you."

Lily felt a tingle run down her spine, though whether it was from the cold, or what James had said, or the way he had brushed her cheek, just barely touching her, as he said it, she couldn't tell.

"I love the way you say that," Lily told him.

"Say what?"

"Always." She told him. "Always; forever; future. All those words most guys avoid like the plague that you say with such ease. That's part of the comfort I think, the way you seem so sure about what's going to happen. Whether you mean it to sound that way or not…"

"Of course I mean it to sound that way. Now that I've finally gotten you to see me as something other than an arrogant jerk Quidditch player, do you think I'm ever going to let you go?" He smiled at her. "I'd marry you right here and now if I could!"

"Oh, James," Lily laughed at the serious look on his face.

"I'm serious! I wouldn't hesitate to say 'I do', as long as it was with you."

"You really want to marry me?" Lily said disbelievingly, her voice now serious too.

"Yes." He said simply.

Lily sat quietly for a minute, apparently thinking hard. "Lily," James started, afraid he may have scared her. "Lily, I…"

"Then you'll have to ask me properly." She said, cutting him off.

James could hardly believe his ears. "What?"

"You said you wanted to marry me, right? Well then, if you want an answer, you'll have to ask me properly."

James' eyes widened, and he barely dared to believe what he was hearing. He cleared his throat, and then knelt on one knee before her. "Lily Evans, would you, will you, will you marry me?"

"Ye-"

"Oh, wait!" James said, pulling out his wand, then turning for a minute and muttering a spell. When he turned around, he was holding a beautiful silver ring with a glistening diamond. "This was my Grandmother's ring. Mum had it put away, for this, you know." He took her left hand, which shone milky white in the moonlight, and slid the ring on her finger. "Lily, will you marry me?" He asked again.

"Yes!" she said breathlessly, shaking form head to toe.

James squeezed her hand, and then pulled her up with him as he rose to his feet. He took her in his arms and spun her around, laughing from sheer happiness. When he sat her down, he looked in her eyes and said, "I love you, Lily Evans."

"Soon to be Lily Potter!" she reminded him. "And I love you to, James Potter!"

He leaned forward and touched his forehead to hers as he wondered aloud, "How did I get so lucky?"

"I could ask myself the same question," Lily said, smiling up at him. He returned her smile with a kiss so soft, and yet so deep, it left them both weak at the knees. They slid back down to the blanket and stayed there all night, enjoying the happiness so pure, they were sure no one else in the world had ever, nor could ever feel the happiness they felt that night.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Lily woke the next morning without opening her eyes. She breathed in the now familiar scent of James' cologne, and felt the steady beat of his heart against her cheek, along with the comfortable weight of his arm around her waist. She lay there for a moment, remembering the night before, and committing this moment into her memory as well. Finally, with a deep, contented sigh, she opened her eyes. The sun was just beginning to creep up over the horizon, and brilliant hues of red, gold, pink and orange set the sky ablaze with breathtaking beauty. She turned her head to see James sleeping peacefully, his messy hair falling into his eyes and a small, almost imperceptible smile played on his lips. She leaned up to him and whispered, "Wake up, sleepy-head," as she softly swept the hair from his face, and then pressed her lips gently to his.

"Mmm." Mumbled James, stirring slightly. He looked up at Lily, his eyes open to mere slits. He reached for her and pulled her head down close to his again, returning the kiss with zeal. "You should wake me up that way every morning." He told her grinning after they released from the warm kiss. "Once we're married." He added, liking the way the words felt in him mouth.

"I'll wake you up that way half the time, and no more." Lily replied playfully.

"Why only half the time?" Asked James, amusement entering his voice.

"Because the other half of the time, you have to wake me up that way!" Lily told him, she smiled mischievously and giving him a quick kiss on the cheek before saying, "Now look! You're missing the sunrise!"

James grinned and cast her a quick glance before obediently turning to watch the sunrise. He propped himself up against some of the cushions, and Lily leaned back on him, her head against his chest, and wrapped his arms around her waist, and then laid her own arms on top of his.

They stayed there like that until long after the sun had risen, when finally Lily said, "I'd better get to my room before your parents get up and realize we've been out here all night. I don't want them to get the wrong idea about me."

"Alright," James sighed. Then, resting his chin on top of her head, he told her, "I'll be in your room in just a minute to bring you down to breakfast, okay?"

"Alright," she said as she turned. She kissed him softly on the mouth and felt herself grow dizzy from his touch; a shiver ran up her spine as he traced his fingers lightly down her cheek. "See you in a bit," she whispered as she pulled away regretfully from the embrace.

James just grinned and nodded as she walked away, leaving him to regain his breath. "I really AM gonna marry that girl someday." He said as he shook his head in wonder.

"So, how should we tell people?" James asked as he sat on Lily's bed. She was sitting at the desk writing a letter to Dumbledore, telling him they'd be back in a couple of days. They needed to get back to receive their missed assignments before the Christmas Holiday.

"Hmm?" said Lily distractedly.

"I said, how should we tell people?" said James as he walked over to her. "About us?"

"Oh," said Lily, still distracted. Then, with more understanding, "Oh!" She laid her quill aside. "Well I, I'm not sure."

"I figured, if we tell everyone at school before they leave for the holiday, then they'd have a couple of weeks to talk about it, then we'd be old news when school started back, and we wouldn't have to deal with as much talk." James stated this practically; a little more practically than Lily would have expected from him.

"Huh," said Lily, a bit surprised. "I would have thought that after all these years of me turning you down, you'd have liked to hear everyone talking about us getting married."

James grinned. "Well, I'll admit, I wouldn't mind the gossip too much myself. I'd actually kind of enjoy hearing everyone talk about you and me. But, I know you don't like to have people talking about you, whether it's good or bad, so I thought this would work out a bit better."

Lily was touched by this consideration he had given her, and not knowing quite what to say, thanked him by wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him warmly and slowly, her soft lips caressing his. "I love you James." She told him as he stood close to her, his forehead resting on hers, and she could feel the warmth of his breath on her cheek.

"I love you too, Lily. I love you too."


	13. Chapter 13

A little happiness for James and Lily… Enjoy, and please review!

Chapter 13

Lily and James had decided to return to Hogwarts the next day, and to tell James' parents of their marital plans before they left. They had decided that breakfast was a bit early, and decided that Lily should turn the ring around and wear it on her right hand until they ate supper that evening. James' dad would be home then, and they could tell them both at once.

As they day wore on, Lily grew more and more nervous. She liked James' family, and thought they liked her too, but she was unsure of how they would react to the news. After all, she and James were fairly young still, and they might not approve of them being married so young. Every so often while James was talking to her, she'd start thinking of telling them and become completely distracted. And the closer it got to supper time, the colder her fingers grew, and the tighter the knot in her stomach became. James repeatedly asked her if she was alright, and she would only nod and mutter something vague, such as, "Yes, I'm fine," or "Perfectly alright."

Finally, they heard Mrs. Potter call up the stairs for them to come down for dinner. Lily took a deep breath and smiled weakly at James before she moved the ring to her left hand, turning it so the diamond shined and caught the light.

"Are you sure you want to tell them now?" James asked as he looked skeptically at her. "I could tell them myself, or I could write them a letter once we're at Hogwarts."

"No, that's alright." Lily said, taking a deep breath. "They're going to be my family soon; we should tell them together." She took James' hand and walked toward the door. It was now or never, and the thought of never scared her much more than the thought of now.

Now Mrs. Potter was an observant woman, especially when it came to her son. James seldom spoke of Lily at home, obviously not wanting to discuss this type of thing with his mother, but she had heard of Miss Evans enough from James' friends. She suspected his feelings from what his friends had said, and she knew the night he showed up with Lily at the door that he was in love with her. All that remained to be determined was whether Lily felt the same for him as he did for her. She thought she did, but watched them carefully together to be sure.

She had also recognized the ring on Lily's right hand at breakfast that morning, or at least SUSPECTED that was the ring. She decided to wait for them to tell her, however, rather than ask them. She knew how young people liked to think they could fool their parents, and she decided not to ruin their fun.

She called them down to dinner that evening, and wondered if she and Mr. Potter would be in for some news at supper. Just before James and Lily entered the room, she whispered to her husband that she thought they may have a surprise in store for them, and to not to be too shocked if his son had something rather important to tell him. She smiled at the confused look on Robert's face as James and Lily both took their seats at the table.

'I wonder what that smile's for,' James thought to himself as he pulled out Lily chair for her, and seated himself beside her. 'I swear, sometimes I think she knows what's going on in my life more than I do. But she can't know about Lily and me; how could she?'

Meanwhile, Lily felt her fingers turning to ice, and her heart beating twice its normal pace. She took a deep breath and laid her shaking left hand on the table. This was the plan. They hoped that one of his parents would notice the ring, and they would start the conversation. They were in luck.

"That's a beautiful ring, Lily," said Mrs. Potter. "I believe that is almost the same ring as my mother's; at least it looks a lot like it." She smiled, hoping her son would take the hint and go ahead and tell them. She didn't want this dinner to be completely awkward, and hoped it could be somewhat celebratory. She was in luck as well.

"That, that is Grandma's ring," James started. "You see," He looked over at Lily and asked her, "Do you want to tell them, or do you want me to?"

Lily took a deep breath and said, "You've started it James; I suppose I can finish it. Mr. and Mrs. Potter, James and I, well, I know we're very young and, well, but we really are sure and, and we're engaged. We're, we're going to be married." She said breathlessly.

Mrs. Potter smiled while Mr. Potter stuttered. Though his wife had warned him of a surprise, he never expected this. "Well, say something Robert." Mrs. Potter told him. While he tried to remember how to form a sentence, she said, "We're both very happy for you, congratulations."

"Congratulations?" James said disbelievingly. "I have to say, Mum, I expected a bit more than that. I'm not sure quite what I expected, but more than that. A little more surprise maybe, or something."

"Oh, James, you didn't think you could fool your own mother did you? I've known you were in love with Lily since the first moment I saw the two of you together. It didn't take too long for me to figure out that she loved you too. When I saw you with that ring this morning, though you had tried to hide it, I knew you were engaged." She chuckled at the bewildered look on her son's face, and on the face of his fiancé. "Oh, and Lily, you don't have to call us Mr. and Mrs. Potter anymore. We're family now. I think Robert and Elizabeth will be alright."

"Thank you Mrs. Po-, I mean Elizabeth." Lily said, her eyes, brimming with tears of gratitude, happiness, and love for James and his family. "Thank you for everything."


	14. Chapter 14

Enjoy, everyone! And please review! And thanks for reading! And, since it is now December, Merry Christmas! And, I'm going to quit saying 'and' and let you read the story now!

Chapter 14

The next day, as planned, James and Lily returned to Hogwarts. They decided not to tell everyone, but instead to let most people figure it out on their own. It was Hogwarts after all, and it wouldn't take too long for a piece of gossip this big to filter through the school. As it turned out, it didn't take very long at all.

They were going to tell their closest friends the evening they returned. It was about 11:00 when the Gryffindor Common Room was mostly cleared, and they finally had the chance to tell them their news. Sirius, Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew were all there, as were Lily's two best friends Samantha and Taylor. Sam and Taylor were sitting in between Sirius and Lupin, and Peter was sitting off by himself, a bit away from everyone else. James cast him a wondering look before he began. He'd been acting strangely lately; James would have to talk to him later.

Everyone now knew that James and Lily were 'together,' but no one knew how serious they were. James and Lily weren't sure how their friends would react, but were hoping for the best. As James began to speak, he reached for Lily's left hand and set it on his knee. With a deep breath, he opened his mouth to speak, but before any words came, Sam gasped and pointed at the ring. She was nearly shouting when she asked, "Is that what I think it is!"

Taylor looked at where Sam was pointing and here eyes grew to the size of quarters. Most of the time she tended to be a bit quieter than Sam, but this was not most of the time. Her best friend had an engagement ring on her hand! "Oh my gosh, Lily! Are you and James, are you getting married?"

Sirius and Lupin, who were a bit slower about these things, didn't realize what all the screaming was about until they heard the word, 'married'. Lupin, who was trying to be calm and not totally shocked over his friend's news, stood and walked over to James to shake his hand. "Congratulations mate," he said as he smiled broadly. "I'm sure you'll both be very happy together." Then with a smile to Lily and a covert wink to James, he took his place again by Taylor, who was still trying to recover from the shock.

Sirius grinned mischievously at the news. "I'd have never believed it mate! I'll have to try that strategy of yours sometime, just ask until you wear her down!" He turned from James and Lily to face Samantha. "What do you say, wanna go out?"

Sam grinned and winked at Lily. She'd had a crush on Sirius since third year when he'd put a flobberworm in Severus Snape's bed. "Sure," she said nonchalantly. "Why not?"

"Hey, it really does work mate!" He placed an arm around her shoulders and cast James a secret look. He'd liked Sam since third year when she'd sneaked into the Slytherin's Quidditch locker room and threw dung bombs in all of their lockers.

Peter glanced up for a moment, just long enough to say congratulations. James noted his lack of enthusiasm, which was unusual. Yes, he'd really have to talk to him later, but now it was time to celebrate. He turned back to Lupin and Sirius and they began talking of all, or almost all, that had happened between him and Lily. He smiled as he saw her laughing and talking with her friends, and vowed to himself that he'd to whatever was in his power to make her happy. He'd do whatever it took.


	15. Chapter 15

_Chapter 15_

_The following days, the news spread about Lily and James' engagement. Everywhere they went, whispers followed. In classes, Lily would notice someone staring at the ring on her finger. She'd look up and smile at them sweetly as though she had no idea what they were whispering about. They'd then turn quickly, knowing they were found out, and frantic whispers would ensue._

_Occasionally, a particularly brazen girl would walk up and demand to know the truth. To this, Lily would calmly respond, "I guess you'll just have to keep an eye on the Prophet and look for an announcement." She'd then leave the prying girl with a stunned look on her face, and go off in search of James or one of their close friends._

_Though they were only in school for a short time before Christmas Holiday, Lily was definitely ready to go by the end of the term. She would be going with Sam to stay at Taylor's house for a couple of days, and then would go to stay at James' on Christmas Eve. Sirius and Remus would be there, too. James had asked Peter to come as well, but he had said something about staying with some cousins and that he wouldn't be able to make it. Sam and Taylor would be meeting them for the last few days of the break, after Christmas. This would be one of the last holidays the group would have with their friends before they graduated, and they wanted to spend it together. _

_The last day of the semester, Lily, James, Sam, Sirius, Taylor and Remus stood together just outside Hogwarts grounds, their trunks at their feet. James stood with his arm wrapped around Lily's waist as they said good-bye to their friends. His eyes danced laughingly when he glanced at Sirius. He was standing behind Sam with both of his arms wrapped around her, his chin resting lightly on her head. The two had really hit it off as a couple, and Sam had become startlingly unpopular overnight. Neither seemed to care too much; they were having too much fun. Also, there was mysteriously enough, a rather rapid increase of practical jokes being played on Snape lately. Just the day before during breakfast, someone had slipped what seemed to be a diluted form of Amortentia into his porridge. While Professor McGonagall was speaking to him, be began confessing his undying love for her. He even managed to spout off a few sonnets before he was taken to the Hospital Wing. By the end of the day, the rumors spread to include some passionate snogging. _

_When the good-byes had been said, Lily turned to James to give him his adieu. "I'll see you in a couple of days, okay?" she told him as she circled her arms around his neck. _

"_Alright," he said, kissing her on the tip of her nose. "I'll see you on Christmas Eve." He expected her to break away then, not really thinking she'd want to do much kissing in front of her friends. She was a fairly private person usually, so he was rather surprised when she pulled him close to her and leaned up to touch her lips to his. A small kiss lengthened into a deep embrace, with his strong arms holding her close to him. When she finally pulled away, she traced her hand lightly down his cheek and said, "Good-bye."_

_James looked at her with an irrepressible smile as he returned her good-bye. Their friends stood around in a stunned silence as Lily walked over to Taylor and the two of them waited for Sam to join them. Sirius turned Samantha around and gave her a hopeful look. She just smiled and shook her head, then kissed him lightly on the mouth, turned and walked over to her friends. Taylor, on whose other side stood Remus, cast him an awkward look, and for the first time, Lily noticed they were holding hands. He gave her a look that seemed to say, 'It's okay if you don't want to kiss me, I'll understand,' but she ignored it and planted a hasty kiss on his cheek before turning to her friends saying, "Ready?" She acted like nothing had happened, though her cheeks were blazing and she seemed rather out of breath. They just nodded, and then with three almost simultaneous 'pops,' they were gone. _

_Remus, who had decided to take Taylor's lead and act like nothing had happened, glanced around at his friends and said, "Well, I guess we should get going."_

_James and Sirius grinned at each other, and James suppressed a laugh as he said, "Yeah, I guess so." They grabbed their trunks and were gone with three 'pops,' just as the girls had._


	16. Chapter 16

Enjoy! And please review! Hope you like it!

Chapter16

"So come on, Lily, spill already!" Sam said to Lily as she rolled over on Taylor's bed and began munching on some Christmas candy.

"What is there to spill," Lily said nonchalantly, taking a chocolate for herself and nibbled on the edge. "It turns out, James isn't a jerk, he's a really nice guy, and now we're getting married." She barely suppressed a smile and wouldn't look either of her friends in the eye.

Sam snorted loudly, "Ok, so for years, you hate James Potter's guts, then suddenly, over night, you're in love with him? We couldn't talk about this too much at school, especially with that loudmouth Pamela Patil in our room. But now, it's just the three of us, and you're going to tell us everything, or we'll just have to hold you captive." She gave Taylor a nod, and as if to reiterate this point, Taylor conjured a long rope and allowed it to hover in the air.

"Ok! Ok!" Laughed Lily as she wove her wand and the rope disappeared. "Fine, I'll tell you!"

"Good," said Taylor. "So let's hear it."

"Ok," said Lily as she took a deep breath. "But if you want to hear the whole thing, it's kind of long."

"No problem," Sam said with a smile. "We've got all night."

"Alright Prongs, you skated all around the story of what happened between you and Evans. Are you gonna tell us what really happened, or are we gonna have to drag it out of you?" Sirius said, mockingly menacing.

"No need to get violent, Padfoot!" James laughed, feigning terror. "There's not much I can tell you that you don't already know. I liked, or rather loved, Lily for years. When she got the letter telling her about what happened to her parents, I was there for her. Something just happened, I don't know quite what. I don't have a very good explanation; your guess is as good as mine as to how I became so lucky to get her to fall in love with me. But she did, and when I felt like I really knew she loved me, I took a chance and gave her the ring. Amazingly enough, she accepted." Sirius cast him a look like he thought James must be leaving out some important details, which of course he was. But James just didn't feel it would be right to share all that he and Lily had gone through since that night. He decided to avoid further interrogation from Padfoot by changing the topic. Remus had been sitting quietly in the corner, not paying either of them much attention when James said, "So, Moony, what's going on with you and Tay? Seems to me," James glanced at Sirius, "our good friend's been keeping a secret from us."

Remus' cheeks tinged red at the mention of Taylor's name, and became outright scarlet when Padfoot grinned and slapped him on the back, saying, "Oh, yeah! I almost forgot about your little farewell kiss back there. Now how long has this been going on, you ol' Casanova?"

Moony cleared his throat, took his glasses from his nose, and polished them on his robes. "Well, uh," he cleared his throat again. "We, uh, we've been talking for some time now. Actually, since the end of last school year. We, uh, well; I was helping her find her friends on the train. She was late because she was talking to Professor McGonagall about NEWT courses. Anyway, we talked a bit before we found Lily and Sam, and before she went in, I asked her if I could write to her over summer. So, yeah, we've been going together since then. She's just a little shy, and she knew a certain friend of hers didn't care much for a certain friend of mine, at the time at least, so we've been sort of keeping it a secret. I guess when she found out you two were engaged, she figured it would be alright if people knew about us. I mean, we're not nearly as big a gossip item as the two of you." Remus smiled. "So, now you know, and when we come back from Holiday, everyone will know. I have to say, I'll be pretty happy. While a secret relationship has the mysterious air to it, it'll be nice to eat lunch together, and walk together down the halls."

"Holding hands," Sirius said in a sing-song voice. "Snogging behind the statue of the hump-back witch, or one of Sir Ingador the Magnificent."

James choked down a laugh as Remus conjured up a rotten tomato and threw in Padfoot's face.

"… and that's pretty much what happened. So now, after years of despising James Potter, I'm thinking of a wedding date, picking out flowers and invitations, and just flat out staring at this ring every so often." Lily smiled, and almost like she was showing them what she was talking about, she went quiet for a minute. Deep in thought, she gazed at her ring, stroking the silver band.

Sam cleared her throat, bringing Lily back to Earth. She and turned to Taylor and said, "Ok, so now that we've gotten that out of the way, care to tell us what's happening with you and Remus?"

So Sam, Lily and Taylor spent the rest of the night about relationships, the upcoming wedding, and normal teenage gossip, laughing, eating chocolate, and throwing popcorn at each other. Back at James' house, the Marauders' were doing there own version of this. After picking on each other a good bit about new relationships, their conversation turned to Quidditch instead of gossip. In both houses the groups spent the night enjoying the company of their friends, realizing that this chapter of their life was drawing near the end. They knew that soon school would be over for them for good, and they were all determined to make the best of what was left of it.

_The end of this chapter makes me a little sad, because I'm on the verge of graduating college and am going to miss everyone __L But, Carpe Diem! Making memories while I can! Hope you all enjoyed this chapter, there are only a couple left, and they'll be coming soon!_


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

The rest of the holiday was spent in snowball fights (made all the more interesting with jinxed snowballs going down collars) and sledding during the day, and sitting cozily by the fire with mugs of hot cider in the evenings. On Christmas morning, gifts were exchanged, and bits of wrapping paper were strewn all over the floor. Lupin gave Taylor a framed photograph of them having a picnic by a stream, the horizon bursting with the colors of dusk behind them, and a book entitled "A Cure for Every Curse: A Collection of Remedies for Any Ailment_." _She was planning on becoming a healer. Taylor gave him a book too, "Magical Creatures and Their Secret Gifts_," _along with a handsome quill set.

Samantha was laughing and talking with Lily when Sirius tapped her on the shoulder and extended a rather oddly shaped package. When she reached for it, it gave a slight shudder, and she looked at Padfoot skeptically before opening it. As she tore away the wrapping –scarlet covered with snitches and quaffles– as small owl, white with black tipped wings and black rimmed eyes, was revealed. She grinned, and wrapping her arms around Sirius's neck, kissing him on the cheek. She then reached for the packages sitting near the fireplace and handed it to him. In one was a bottle of_ "_Hurt N. Boil's Itching Powder", (which caused all present to groan in anxiety of the future use of the powder). The other contained a framed clipping from "Witch Weekly," headlines reading "Hogwarts Youth Proclaims Undying Love for Professor," and a picture of one Severus Snape spouting sonnets to Professor McGonagall, photographer unknown_. In the last package was a small box of Pup E. Dog's Famous Doggie Biscuits. _

_When the other four were laughing and talking, James slipped Lily a long, thin black velvet box. Inside was a thin silver chain, and on it was tiny perfect silver lily. Every detail was exact, down to the veins of the petals. James explained, "I made the charm. I had a real lily dipped in silver. Then, I used the Reducto spell to shrink it, and put it on the necklace. Do you like it?" _

"_It's gorgeous. I love it James," She said, kissing him lightly on the mouth. "Now, open mine!" She handed him a box similar to the one he had given her, and he opened it to reveal a small pendant, inscribed with runes. "It's, uh, it's supposed to grow warm when someone is being dishonest. Incase, you know, incase there are any dark wizards about, trying to hurt you…" She looked away for a moment, lost in thought. _

"_Thank you, Lily," James said softly, stroking her cheek with his thumb. "Please, though, don't worry about that. We're going to be fine, alright? We'll be fine."_

_Lily smiled, thankful for the reassurance, and said, "Oh, here, I got you this too." She handed him a larger box, full of his favorite candies from Honey Dukes. _

_All too soon, the holiday was over and the group of friends was obliged to return to Hogwarts. After saying their good-byes to James' parents, they apparated to Hogsmeade, and made their journey back to school._


	18. Chapter 18

Apparently there was a bit of confusion in thinking that chapter 17 was the end of the story. This is in fact the last chapter of this story. I hope it leaves you with a bit more closure. Thanks so much for reading and all of your kind reviews. I hope you've enjoyed this as much as I have! Cheers, and Merry Christmas!

Chapter 18

The next months flew by like something out of someone else's life. Before Lily and James knew it, N.E.W.T.S were over, as was their time as Hogwarts students. The next milestone in their lives was fast approaching.

June 27th was to be their wedding day. Mrs. Potter had done a good deal of the planning to allow the young couple to focus on their exams, but Lily had made the final decisions.

The invitations had gone out to all of their family and friends, and Lily had spent a tearful day holding a sealed invitation, addressed to Petunia Evans, marked "Return to Sender."

James found her curled on her bed in her dormitory, and held her in his arms, rocking her gently until her tears subsided. After some minutes, she lifted her head and forced a smile. "I didn't really expect her to come. I just…"

James nodded, "I know, you just hoped she might be happy for you." She nodded, trembling, tears threatening to spill again. "It'll be okay, Lil, I know it will. Just give her some time; she needs more time. You and your sister will be friends again some day."

"I know, I, I just really wanted her there," she said softly. She shook her head and quickly wiped her hands over her eyes, and sniffed. "But I'm okay, now. Really. Thank you, James."

"Any time," he smiled. "Hey," he said, eyes dancing mischievously, "Want to go slide down the stairs? I'll bet standing on the top stair will set it off too."

Lily started; she had forgotten he shouldn't have been able to come up here to the girl's dormitories. She began to say something, then decided not to ask and that there are some things she doesn't need to know about. "Okay, let's go." She took hand and they raced out of the room.

Soon after this, their time at Hogwarts ended, and Lily and James returned to his parent's house until the wedding. James carried Lily's luggage to the same room she had stayed in before, but this time, Mrs. Potter was there as well. When James lingered after setting her trunk at the foot of her bed, his mother said, "I'm sure Lily's tired, dear, maybe you should let her rest."

Lily's eyes smiled as she kissed him on the cheek and said, "I'll see you at dinner; I am a little tired."

When James and Mrs. Potter had left, she opened her trunk and began to unpack a few things. She hung her robes in the closet, folded her other clothes and put them in her drawers. Tenderly, she picked up a framed photograph of her family from the summer before they had spent in France on the beach. It was muggle photo, and it seemed almost strange that the tiny figures were not waving at her, but instead stood still, frozen in time. She placed the picture on the desk, and returned to the trunk. There, at the very bottom, was an ivory gown. She softly caressed the silky material with her fingertips. This, she had chosen entirely on her own. She had received permission from Professor Dumbledore to go with Sam and Taylor one Saturday to find it. They had spent hours, looking at dress after dress, but the instant she had seen this one, Lily knew this was the one. Carefully, Lily hung it in the closet, behind the rest of her clothes, and then went downstairs for dinner.

June 27 came, and so did James and Lily's loved ones. Lily didn't have any other family aside from her sister. Both sets of her grandparents had died when she was too young to remember, and she didn't have any aunts or uncles, so all the guests were witches and wizards. The group was small, a few of their friends from school, including of course, Remus, Sirius, Taylor, Sam, and a rather silent Peter Pettigrew, a few distant relatives of James' whom they couldn't offend by omitting invitions, Professor Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall, a few others they had grown close to over the past seven years at Hogwarts, and of course, James' parents.

Guests began to filter into the house, and James waited for the wedding to begin, pacing in his room and pulling anxiously at the collar of his dress robes. "Nervous, mate?" Sirius asked from his seat on James' bed.

"No," James said, his voice cracking. He cleared his throat, "I mean, 'no.'"

Sirius grinned. "Relax, mate. You've been wishing for this for seven years. I, personally, never thought it'd happen, but here we are."

"You'll be fine, James," Remus said from the corner. His face was slightly pale, and he had circles under his eyes. The week before had been the full moon and the effects were still wearing off. "Just try to calm down a bit; your mum won't be too happy if that hole you're wearing in the floor gets much deeper."

James stopped pacing and sat down in his desk chair. Immediately, his foot began tapping the floor. He just couldn't sit still.

Lily was sitting in front of a vanity mirror Taylor had conjured for her, staring blankly at her image. Samantha was standing behind her, brushing her hair, talking about different things, trying to distract her, but Lily didn't hear a word until Sam tapped her on the shoulder and said, "Did you hear me Lil? I said you should probably get dressed now."

"Oh, yeah, right." Lily said, and stood. Taylor handed her the dress, and Lily stepped behind a dressing screen to change. Her fingers fumbled over the tiny pearl buttons, and Taylor asked if she needed any help. "No, I've got it," Lily said as she tapped the back of her dress with the tip of her wand, and it buttoned itself. She stepped our from behind the screen, and her friends let out a soft gasp.

"What?" Lily asked, anxiously looked down at her dress, half expecting to see a giant tear or a stain.

"Nothing, it's just… Oh, Lily, you look so beautiful!" Taylor said, her eyes becoming misty. She stepped as quickly as she could in her high heel shoes over to Lily and hugged her, sniffling slightly.

"Hey, don't leave me out!" Sam said, putting her arms around both of her friends, her eyes teary as well. They all began to laugh, and wiped their eyes.

"I don't know why I'm doing this," exclaimed Taylor. "It's not like we'll never see each other again, but…"

"But it won't be the same," Sam picked up the trailing sentence. "Things are changing."

"For the better, I hope." Lily said, with a smile. "But I know what you mean. It seems like our entire lives have been turned upside down overnight. And now, we're growing up. Really growing up. I mean, I'm getting married! To James Potter! A year ago, I'd have thought that would have been impossible."

"Yeah, you're getting married; Taylor's going off to become a healer; I'll be stuck in Diagon Alley, working in my Dad's shop until I earn enough money to rent that space for my own shop." Sam had aspirations to become a great fashion designer, but her parents thought it too much of a whim to lend her the money to get started. They hoped by the time she had earned the money to open the shop, she'll have changed her mind and decided to pursue something more practical, like a healer, or Mistress of Magic, or maybe take over the family business. Lily and Taylor knew this wouldn't happen, though. Sam had been sketching edgy new designs for clothes since third year, and during their sixth and seventh years, she had even brought some of her ideas to life, sewing them herself and selling them to fellow students. "We're all splitting up."

"Well, we'll just have to make sure that doesn't happen. We're best friends, our boyfriends, and husband," Taylor nodded to Lily, "are best friends. School may be over, but we'll still be together, we'll make sure of it."

"Promise?" Sam asked, looking a little relieved, like she had really thought she wouldn't see them again for years.

"Of course," said Lily with a smile. "Now, come on you guys, help me fix my hair."

The back yard of the Potters' house had been made over so beautifully, if you hadn't known magic was used, you'd have had to suspect it. Tiny fairy lights glimmered from the tree branches at the edge of the surrounding woods. The legs of the rows of white velvet cushioned chairs sank into grass so soft and thick, it felt like the most expensive carpet. A fine white silk cloth ran the length of the aisle, and led to a lattice arch, woven thickly with pale yellow honeysuckle, saturating the air with their intoxicating scent.

Guests began to filter into the yard and find their seats as sunset approached. The priest stood beneath the arch, and James took his place in front of him, with Sirius and Remus beside. A woman in fuchsia robes and a lime green hat began playing a large golden harp as Taylor began the procession.

Her dress was pale yellow, the color of the honeysuckle covering the arch. It was long and sleek, the neck cut high, just below her throat, but the back was open, except for the corset-style straps criss-crossing down the back. Samantha followed her with a dress similar in color, but strapless, and tighter fitting, and where Taylor's flowed almost the ground, Sam's fell only to her knees.

When Taylor was halfway down the aisle, Lupin came to meet her, took her arm in his, and escorted her the rest of the way, as did Sirius when Sam reached that point. When all were in their positions, the woman at the harp began to strum the Wedding March, and all rose from their seats to turn and watch as Lily appeared at the foot of the silk cloth.

She looked radiant, with her auburn hair twisted into loose spiraling curls, piled on her head, and two loose tendrils fell by her eyes, framing her face. Her gown was of ivory silk, and it fit tightly across the bodice, which was embroidered with tiny silver roses. At the waist, the dress loosened and flowed freely, until the skirt ended, just touching the ground. Embroidered flowers were scattered across the skirt, and around the hem.

At her side was Robert Potter; he was to give her away. James looked down the aisle and smiled at Lily. He knew how hard it must be for her, not to have her father here. He knew they had been close. At the other end of the aisle, Mr. Potter took Lily's arm and walked her down the aisle, and smiling at his son and soon-to-be-daughter, he took Lily's hand and joined it with James'.

The minister began to speak about love, marriage, and commitment. James and Lily were in some what of a daze, and they heard nothing until he began their part.

"Do you James Potter, take Lily Evans, to have and to hold, for richer or poorer…"

They stood together, holding each other's hands, and said their vows, promising to be together, and love one another, until separated by death. They gave each other a ring, symbolizing their love, which has no beginning and no end. And finally, the minister said, "I now pronounce you, man and wife." Then, looking at James he said, "You may kiss the bride."

(A few years later.)

An old wizard with a long silver beard and a very crooked nose walked into a somewhat dirty-looking bar with rather few customers. He shook off his cloak, for it was raining outside, and hung on a peg on the wall.

"Hello, Aberforth," he cheerily greeted the barkeep, "has a Miss Trelawney been here?" He asked.

"Upstairs," he grunted, nodding to a door visible from where they were standing, which looked rather loose on its hinges, and had a tarnished brass number 7 affixed to it.

The old wizard walked up the rickety stairs and stepped into the room. He was to interview Miss Trelawney for a position at the school of which he was Headmaster. After a somewhat disappointing interview, he was about to give his apologies and take his leave, when something most extraordinary happened. The woman's head fell forward and lolled from side to side, as though she had lost consciousness. Then, suddenly, she sat bolt upright, staring straight in front of her, but seeing nothing, and in harsh, rasping tones, she began to speak.

"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approached…Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies… (Here, there is a loud crash outside the door, and shouting voices can be heard, but the old wizard pays them no attention, focusing only on the woman.) And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not… And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives…"

Once again, the woman's head fell to her chest, and she looked up at the wizard, quite unaware anything had happened.

The End


End file.
